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Issue A&A
Volume 415, Number 3, March I 2004
Page(s) L35 - L38
Section Letters
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20040010



A&A 415, L35-L38 (2004)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20040010

Letter

Quasar jet emission model applied to the microquasar GRS 1915+105

M. Türler1, 2, T. J.-L. Courvoisier1, 2, S. Chaty3, 4 and Y. Fuchs4

1  INTEGRAL Science Data Centre, ch. d'Ecogia 16, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
2  Observatoire de Genève, ch. des Maillettes 51, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
3  Université Paris 7, 2 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
4  Service d'Astrophysique, DSM/DAPNIA/SAp, CEA/Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, Cedex, France

(Received 18 December 2003 / Accepted 14 January 2004 )

Abstract
The true nature of the radio emitting material observed to be moving relativistically in quasars and microquasars is still unclear. The microquasar community usually interprets them as distinct clouds of plasma, while the extragalactic community prefers a shock wave model. Here we show that the synchrotron variability pattern of the microquasar GRS 1915+105 observed on 15 May 1997 can be reproduced by the standard shock model for extragalactic jets, which describes well the long-term behaviour of the quasar 3C 273. This strengthens the analogy between the two classes of objects and suggests that the physics of relativistic jets is independent of the mass of the black hole. The model parameters we derive for GRS 1915+105 correspond to a rather dissipative jet flow, which is only mildly relativistic with a speed of $0.60\,c$. We can also estimate that the shock waves form in the jet at a distance of about 1 AU from the black hole.


Key words: radiation mechanisms: non-thermal -- stars: individual: GRS 1915+105 -- infrared: stars -- radio continuum: stars

Offprint request: M. Türler, Marc.Turler@obs.unige.ch

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© ESO 2004


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