Jets from X-ray binaries

Abstract

Relativistic outflows, or `Jets', represent one of the most obvious, important and yet poorly-explained phenomena associated with accreting relativistic objects, including X-ray binaries. In the past decade we have observed highly relativistic flows, the resultant in-situ particle acceleration in the ISM, and begun to unearth the subtleties of the accretion -- outflow coupling on timescales from seconds to years. In this chapter I shall attempt, subjectively, to describe the state of research into jets from X-ray binaries as it stands at the beginning of 2003.