Minutes-duration optical flares with supernova luminosities

In recent years, certain luminous extragalactic optical transients have been observed to last only a few days1. Their short observed duration implies a different powering mechanism from the most common luminous extragalactic transients (supernovae), whose timescale is weeks2. Some short-duration transients, most notably AT2018cow (ref. 3), show blue optical colours and bright radio and X-ray emission4. Several AT2018cow-like transients have shown hints of a long-lived embedded energy source5, such as X-ray variability6,7, prolonged ultraviolet emission8, a tentative X-ray quasiperiodic oscillation9,10 and large energies coupled to fast (but subrelativistic) radio-emitting ejecta11,12. Here we report observations of minutes-duration optical flares in the aftermath of an AT2018cow-like transient, AT2022tsd (the ‘Tasmanian Devil’). The flares occur over a period of months, are highly energetic and are probably nonthermal, implying that they arise from a near-relativistic outflow or jet. Our observations confirm that, in some AT2018cow-like transients, the embedded energy source is a compact object, either a magnetar or an accreting black hole

(Sub)-millimetre Observations of MAXI J1820+070 (ASASSN-18ey) Suggest Jet Quenching on July 6

Following the report of a hard to soft accretion state transition (ATel #11820) in the currently outbursting candidate black hole X-ray binary, MAXI J1820+070 (ATel #11399, #11400, #11404, #11406, #11418, #11420, #11440), we performed target-of-opportunity observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Submillimeter Array (SMA)

Sub-mm Jet Properties of the X-Ray Binary Swift J1745-26

We present the results of our observations of the early stages of the 2012-2013 outburst of the transient black hole X-ray binary (BHXRB), Swift J1745-26, with the Very Large Array, Submillimeter Array, and James Clerk Maxwell telescope (SCUBA-2). Our data mark the first multiple-band mm and sub-mm observations of a BHXRB. During our observations the system was in the hard accretion state producing a steady, compact jet. The unique combination of radio and mm/sub-mm data allows us to directly measure the spectral indices in and between the radio and mm/sub-mm regimes, including the first mm/sub-mm spectral index measured for a BHXRB. Spectral fitting revealed that both the mm (230 GHz) and sub-mm (350 GHz) measurements are consistent with extrapolations of an inverted power law from contemporaneous radio data (1-30 GHz). This indicates that, as standard jet models predict, a power law extending up to mm/sub-mm frequencies can adequately describe the spectrum, and suggests that the mechanism driving spectral inversion could be responsible for the high mm/sub-mm fluxes (compared to radio fluxes) observed in outbursting BHXRBs. While this power law is also consistent with contemporaneous optical data, the optical data could arise from either jet emission with a jet spectral break frequency of ν ≳ 1 x 10^14 Hz or the combination of jet emission with a lower jet spectral break frequency of ν break ≳ 2 x 10^11 Hz and accretion disk emission. Our analysis solidifies the importance of the mm/sub-mm regime in bridging the crucial gap between radio and IR frequencies in the jet spectrum, and justifies the need to explore this regime further

Extreme jet ejections from the black hole X-ray binary V404 Cygni

We present simultaneous radio through sub-mm observations of the black hole X-ray binary (BHXB) V404 Cygni during the most active phase of its June 2015 outburst. Our 4 h long set of overlapping observations with the Very Large Array, the Sub-millimeter Array and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (SCUBA-2) covers eight different frequency bands (including the first detection of a BHXB jet at 666 GHz/450 μm), providing an unprecedented multifrequency view of the extraordinary flaring activity seen during this period of the outburst. In particular, we detect multiple rapidly evolving flares, which reach Jy-level fluxes across all of our frequency bands. With this rich data set, we performed detailed MCMC modelling of the repeated flaring events. Our custom model adapts the van der Laan synchrotron bubble model to include twin bi-polar ejections, propagating away from the black hole at bulk relativistic velocities, along a jet axis that is inclined to the line of sight. The emission predicted by our model accounts for projection effects, relativistic beaming and the geometric time delay between the approaching and receding ejecta in each ejection event. We find that a total of eight bi-polar, discrete jet ejection events can reproduce the emission that we observe in all of our frequency bands remarkably well. With our best-fitting model, we provide detailed probes of jet speed, structure, energetics and geometry. Our analysis demonstrates the paramount importance of the mm/sub-mm bands, which offer a unique, more detailed view of the jet than can be provided by radio frequencies alone