Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope Monitoring of the Black Hole X-Ray Binary, V404 Cygni during Its 2015 June Outburst

Abstract

We report results from a Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) monitoring campaign of the black hole X-ray binary V404 Cygni during its 2015 June outburst. The GMRT observations were carried out at observing frequencies of 1280, 610, 325, and 235 MHz, and extended from June 26.89 UT (a day after the strongest radio/X-ray outburst) to July 12.93 UT. We find the low-frequency radio emission of V404 Cygni to be extremely bright and fast-decaying in the outburst phase, with an inverted spectrum below 1.5 GHz and an intermediate X-ray state. The radio emission settles to a weak, quiescent state ≈11 days after the outburst, with a flat radio spectrum and a soft X-ray state. Combining the GMRT measurements with flux density estimates from the literature, we identify a spectral turnover in the radio spectrum at ≈1.5 GHz on ≈ June 26.9 UT, indicating the presence of a synchrotron self-absorbed emitting region. We use the measured flux density at the turnover frequency with the assumption of equipartition of energy between the particles and the magnetic field to infer the jet radius (≈4.0 × 1013 cm), magnetic field (≈0.5 G), minimum total energy (≈7 × 1039 erg), and transient jet power (≈8 × 1034 erg s−1). The relatively low value of the jet power, despite V404 Cygni's high black hole spin parameter, suggests that the radio jet power does not correlate with the spin parameter.