Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Gone with the Wind: JWST-MIRI Unveils a Strong Outflow from the Quiescent Stellar-mass Black Hole A0620-00
Show others and affiliations
Number of Authors: 182025 (English)In: Astrophysical Journal, ISSN 0004-637X, E-ISSN 1538-4357, Vol. 991, no 2, article id 157Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We present new observations of the black hole X-ray binary A0620-00 using the Mid-Infrared (MIR) Instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope, during a state where the X-ray luminosity is 9 orders of magnitude below Eddington, and coordinated with radio, near-infrared, and optical observations. The goal is to understand the nature of the excess MIR emission originally detected by Spitzer redward of 8 μm. The stellar-subtracted MIR spectrum is well modeled by a power law with a spectral index of α = 0.72 ± 0.01, where the flux density scales with frequency as Fν ∝ να. The spectral characteristics, along with rapid variability—a 40% flux flare at 15 μm and 25% achromatic variability in the 5-12 μm range—rule out a circumbinary disk as the source of the MIR excess. The Low Resolution Spectrometer reveals a prominent emission feature at 7.5 μm, resulting from the blend of three hydrogen recombination lines. While the contribution from partially self-absorbed synchrotron radiation cannot be ruled out, we argue that thermal bremsstrahlung from a warm (a few tens of thousands of Kelvin) wind accounts for the MIR excess; the same outflow is responsible for the emission lines. The inferred mass outflow rate indicates that the system’s low luminosity is due to a substantial fraction of the mass supplied by the donor star being expelled through a wind rather than accreted onto the black hole.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. Vol. 991, no 2, article id 157
National Category
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-247934DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/adf6b9ISI: 001577912700001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105017031344OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-247934DiVA, id: diva2:2008186
Available from: 2025-10-22 Created: 2025-10-22 Last updated: 2025-11-13Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Veledina, Alexandra

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Veledina, Alexandra
By organisation
Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita)
In the same journal
Astrophysical Journal
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 42 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf