Jets from black hole binaries and Galactic Nuclei

Abstract

Relativistic outflows are a common phenomenon in accreting black holes. Despite the enormous differences in scale, stellar-mass black holes in binaries and supermassive black holes in Galactic Nuclei produce jets with analogous properties. In both are observed two types of relativistic outflows: 1) steady compact jets with flat-spectrum, and 2) sporadic extended jets with steep-spectrum and apparent superluminal motions. Besides, the most common class of gamma-ray bursts are afterglows from ultra-relativistic jets associated to the formation of black holes at cosmological distances.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. To be published at the Proceedings of the ESO Workshop on Black holes in binaries and galactic nuclei. September 6-8, 1999, Garching, German