Doppler boosting effects on the radiation of relativistic jets

Abstract

The geometry of high-mass microquasar jets is determined by the ram pressure of the stellar wind of the central star, which bends the jet outwards, and the orbital motion of the compact objects producing the jets. This structure emits radiation which is affected by the Doppler boosting effect. Our goal is to understand how the wind determines the jet geometry and compute the effect of Doppler boosting on the luminosity. To do this we use a simple model to compute the geometry, which is based on accounting for the wind-jet momentum transfer in the companion star non-inertial frame of reference. The final geometry has an helical shape which gets larger with the distance to the jet base. Then, we study the luminosity for a full orbital phase of the jet for 3 different orbital inclinations. The results indicate changes in the luminosity due to Doppler boosting by about a 320-630% depending on the inclination.