Breaking News
Accretion and outflows in black-hole binaries: The extreme case of V404 Cyg

Abstract

X-ray observations performed during the last few decades have provided a rich data base on accreting black holes and neutron stars in X-ray binaries. A strong coupling between the properties of the accretion flow and the presence of outflows, such as radio-jets and X-ray winds, has been found to be a fundamental characteristic of black hole systems; a feature which might be shared by super-massive black holes in active galactic nuclei.
I will present some novel results corresponding to the 2015 outburst of the prototypical black hole transient V404 Cyg (Muñoz-Darias et al. 2016, Nature). During this event, arguably the most interesting of its kind in decades, we have discovered a sustained outer accretion disc wind, which is simultaneous to the radio jet.  Our GTC-10.4m spectra show  that the outflowing wind is neutral, has a large covering factor, expands at 1% of the speed of light and triggers a nebular phase once accretion sharply drops and the ejecta become optically thin. I will discuss the implications of these results in the context of black hole accretion.