A rapidly-changing jet orientation in the stellar-mass black hole V404 Cygni. (arXiv:1906.05400v1 [astro-ph.HE])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Miller_Jones_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">James C.A. Miller-Jones</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Tetarenko_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Alexandra J. Tetarenko</a> (2,3), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sivakoff_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">Gregory R. Sivakoff</a> (2), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Middleton_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Matthew J. Middleton</a> (4), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Altamirano_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">Diego Altamirano</a> (4), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Anderson_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">Gemma E. Anderson</a> (1), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Belloni_T/0/1/0/all/0/1">Tomaso M. Belloni</a> (5), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Fender_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Rob P. Fender</a> (6), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Jonker_P/0/1/0/all/0/1">Peter G. Jonker</a> (7,8), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Kording_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">Elmar G. K&#xf6;rding</a> (8), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Krimm_H/0/1/0/all/0/1">Hans A. Krimm</a> (9,10), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Maitra_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">Dipankar Maitra</a> (11), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Markoff_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">Sera Markoff</a> (12,13), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Migliari_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">Simone Migliari</a> (14,15), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Mooley_K/0/1/0/all/0/1">Kunal P. Mooley</a> (6,16,17), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Rupen_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Michael P. Rupen</a> (18), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Russell_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">David M. Russell</a> (19), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Russell_T/0/1/0/all/0/1">Thomas D. Russell</a> (12), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sarazin_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">Craig L. Sarazin</a> (20), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Soria_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Roberto Soria</a> (21,1,22), <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Tudose_V/0/1/0/all/0/1">Valeriu Tudose</a> (23) ((1) Curtin U, (2) U Alberta, (3) EAO, (4) U Southampton, (5) INAF, (6) U Oxford, (7) SRON, (8) Radboud U, Nijmegen, (9) USRA, (10) NSF, (11) Wheaton College, (12) U Amsterdam, (13) GRAPPA Institute, (14) ESA, (15) U Barcelona, (16) NRAO, (17) Caltech, (18) NRC Herzberg, (19) NYU Abu Dhabi, (20) U Virginia, (21) CAS, (22) Sydney U, (23) Inst. Space Sciences)

Powerful relativistic jets are one of the main ways in which accreting black
holes provide kinetic feedback to their surroundings. Jets launched from or
redirected by the accretion flow that powers them should be affected by the
dynamics of the flow, which in accreting stellar-mass black holes has shown
increasing evidence for precession due to frame dragging effects that occur
when the black hole spin axis is misaligned with the orbital plane of its
companion star. Recently, theoretical simulations have suggested that the jets
can exert an additional torque on the accretion flow, although the full
interplay between the dynamics of the accretion flow and the launching of the
jets is not yet understood. Here we report a rapidly changing jet orientation
on a timescale of minutes to hours in the black hole X-ray binary V404 Cygni,
detected with very long baseline interferometry during the peak of its 2015
outburst. We show that this can be modelled as Lense-Thirring precession of a
vertically-extended slim disk that arises from the super-Eddington accretion
rate. Our findings suggest that the dynamics of the precessing inner accretion
disk could play a role in either directly launching or redirecting the jets
within the inner few hundred gravitational radii. Similar dynamics should be
expected in any strongly-accreting black hole whose spin is misaligned with the
inflowing gas, both affecting the observational characteristics of the jets,
and distributing the black hole feedback more uniformly over the surrounding
environment.

Powerful relativistic jets are one of the main ways in which accreting black
holes provide kinetic feedback to their surroundings. Jets launched from or
redirected by the accretion flow that powers them should be affected by the
dynamics of the flow, which in accreting stellar-mass black holes has shown
increasing evidence for precession due to frame dragging effects that occur
when the black hole spin axis is misaligned with the orbital plane of its
companion star. Recently, theoretical simulations have suggested that the jets
can exert an additional torque on the accretion flow, although the full
interplay between the dynamics of the accretion flow and the launching of the
jets is not yet understood. Here we report a rapidly changing jet orientation
on a timescale of minutes to hours in the black hole X-ray binary V404 Cygni,
detected with very long baseline interferometry during the peak of its 2015
outburst. We show that this can be modelled as Lense-Thirring precession of a
vertically-extended slim disk that arises from the super-Eddington accretion
rate. Our findings suggest that the dynamics of the precessing inner accretion
disk could play a role in either directly launching or redirecting the jets
within the inner few hundred gravitational radii. Similar dynamics should be
expected in any strongly-accreting black hole whose spin is misaligned with the
inflowing gas, both affecting the observational characteristics of the jets,
and distributing the black hole feedback more uniformly over the surrounding
environment.

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