Links

Search

Summary

I conduct research of X-ray binaries and blazars to learn more about how matter is accreted onto black holes and ejected through astrophysical jets.

X-ray Binaries

X-ray binaries consist of a compact object (black hole or neutron star) that accretes gas from a nearby companion star. My interest lies with black-hole X-ray binaries with stellar mass companions. In particular I obtain optical and near-infrared images of these objects using the SMARTS 1.3m telescope in Chile on a daily to near-daily basis. By studying the contribution of different wavelengths of light and how it varies with time, we can learn a great deal about where the light originates (accretion disk, jets, companion star) and how it relates to the accretion processes in these objects. Much of this research involves collaboration with other astrophysicists around the world who obtain yet more data at other wavelengths. By combining our data we have gained a more complete picture of black hole accretion and jet formation. The Yale XRB group is led by Charles Bailyn.

Blazars

Blazars are a subset of objects called Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). AGN are the central regions of galaxies thought to harbor a supermassive (millions of times the mass of the Sun) black hole that is actively accreting matter from surrounding gas and stars. They also exhibit enormous and extremely powerful jets that extend well into the inter-galactic region. If the jets are pointed to our line of sight we call these AGN "blazars". Blazars make excellent targets for studying the physics of astrophysical jets as much of the light we see originates from the jets. This is a result of relativistic doppler boosting of the jet emission. Our group at Yale obtain optical and near-infrared images of blazars at various cadences, depending on the current activity of the blazar, using the SMARTS 1.3m telescope in Chile. Measuring the light of the blazar from these images, together with gamma-ray data from the Fermi telescope, has allowed us to gain much insight into the accretion processes and jet formation in these objects that was not possible before the Fermi era. The Yale blazar group is led by Meg Urry and Charles Bailyn.

Papers

Below are a listing of what I consider to be the most important and interesting papers our group and collaborators have recently published. For a more complete listing please search on the NASA ADS website and enter "Buxton, M." in the author box.

XRB papers

  • "Multiwavelength Coverage of State Transitions in the New Black Hole X-ray Binary Swift J1910.2-0546", 2014, ApJ, 784, 122, Degenaar, N. et al.
  • "The Black Hole Binary V4641 Sagitarii: Activity in Quiescence and Improved Mass Determinations", 2014, ApJ, 784, 2, MacDonald, R.K., Bailyn, C.D., Buxton, M., et al.
  • "Modeling the Optical-X-Ray Accretion Lag in LMC X-3: Insights into Black-hole Accretion Physics", 2014, ApJ, 783, 101, Steiner, J.F., McClintock, J.E., Orosz, J.A., Buxton, M., et al.
  • "The Mass of the Black Hole in LMC X-3", 2014, submitted, ApJ, Orosz, J.A., Steiner, J.F., McClintock, J.E., Buxton, M., et al.
  • "Complete Multiwavelength Evolution of Glactic Black Hole Transients during Outburst Decay.I.Conditions for "Compact" Jet Formation", 2013, ApJ, 779, 95, Kalemci, E., Dincer, T., Tomsick, J.A., Buxton, M., et al.
  • "Formation of the compact jets in the black hole GX 339-4", 2013, MNRAS, 431, L107, Corbel, S., et al.
  • "The 'universal' radio/X-ray flux correlation: the case study of the black hole GX 339-4", Corbel, S., et al.
  • "Optical and Near-infrared Montoring of the Black Hole X-ray Binary GX 339-4 during 2002-2010", Buxton, M., et al.

Blazar papers

  • "Magnetic Field Amplification and Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars", 2014, MNRAS, accepted, Chen, X. et al.
  • "A Time-resolved Study of the Broad-line Region in Blazar 3C 454.3", 2013, ApJ, 779, 100, Isler, J. et al.
  • "An Optical-Near-infrared Outburst with no Accompanying gamma-Rays in the Blazar PKS 0208-512", 2013, ApJ, 763, L11, Chatterjee, R., Fossati, G., Urry, C.M., Bailyn, C.D., Maraschi, L., Buxton, M., et al.
  • "SMARTS Optical and Infrared Monitoring of 12 Gamma-Ray Bright Blazars", 2013, ApJ, 756, 13, Bonning, E., Urry, C.M., Bailyn, C., Buxton, M., et al.
  • "Similarity of the Optical-Infrared and Gamma-Ray Time Variability of Fermi Blazars", 2012, ApJ, 749, 191, Chatterjee, R., Bailyn, C., Bonning, E., Buxton, M., et al.
  • "Correlated Variability in the Blazar 3C 454.3", 2009, ApJ, 697, L81, Bonning, E., Bailyn, C., Urry, C., Buxton, M., et al.