A multiwavelength observing campaign will be undertaken focused on microquasars and the origins of compact objects in our Galaxy and beyond. The goal is to better understand the relativistic jets from such systems - both how they form and evolve. Specific project goals are: 1) The magnetic bomb model will be further developed and extended based on the microquasar GRS 1915+105. Many multi-wavelength aspects (X-ray, infrared, and radio light curves, spectral evolution, quasi periodic oscillations, etc.) will be incorporated and tested. 2) New infrared spectroscopy, photometry, and polarimitry will be obtained with The Gran Telescopio and The Canarias Infrared Camera Experiment imager (first light expected in Oct. 2005). These high time resolution observations will concentrate on GRS 1915+105, but also include other microquasars. The new observations will further constrain the models. 3) Near IR-photometry with the Kitt Peak National Observatory 4-meter telescope and the Florida image slicer for infrared cosmology and astrophysics imaging spectrograph will be used to explore the environments of microquasars and possible interactions, including possible termination shocks. 4) A search for new microquasar systems will be undertaken using Chandra X-ray archive observations combined with Two Micron All Sky Survey data. Possible candidates will be confirmed using infrared spectroscopy from the Canada-France- Hawaii Telescope and Gemini. An extension of the search to use The Florida Multiobject Imaging Near-IR Grism Observational Spectrometer-2 to obtain spectra of ~5000 infrared sources near the Galactic center is also planned. Some 200-300 new X-ray binaries are expected to be found, doubling the number of known systems. 5) The origins of microquasars/compact objects will also be explored through searches for extragalactic X-ray binaries (particularly in starburst galaxies) which can in turn be correlated with properties of their parent clusters (age, metallicity, mass function, etc.) to better understand the origins of compact objects.
