External Compton emission from relativistic jets in Galactic black hole candidates and ultraluminous X-ray sources

Abstract

Galactic binary systems that contain a black hole candidate emit hard X-rays in their low luminosity mode. We show that this emission can be understood as due to the Compton scattering of photons from the companion star and/or the accretion disk by relativistic electrons in a jet. The same electrons are also responsible for the radio emission. Two sources -- XTE J1118+480 and Cygnus X-1 -- are modelled as representatives of black holes with low and high luminosity companion stars respectively. We further show that the ultraluminous compact X-ray sources observed in nearby galaxies have the properties expected of stellar mass black holes with high luminosity companions in which the jet is oriented close to our line of sight.