The Relationship Between X-ray Luminosity and Major Flare Launching in
  GRS 1915+105
  We perform the most detailed analysis to date of the X-ray state of the
Galactic black hole candidate GRS 1915+105 just prior to (0 to 4 hours) and
during the brief (1 to 7 hour) ejection of major (superluminal) radio flares. A
very strong model independent correlation is found between the 1.2 keV - 12 keV
X-ray flux 0 to 4 hours before flare ejections with the peak optically thin 2.3
GHz emission of the flares. This suggests a direct physical connection between
the energy in the ejection and the luminosity of the accretion flow preceding
the ejection. In order to quantify this concept, we develop techniques to
estimate the intrinsic (unabsorbed) X-ray luminosity, $L_{\mathrm{intrinsic}}$,
from RXTE ASM data and to implement known methods to estimate the time averaged
power required to launch the radio emitting plasmoids, $Q$ (sometimes called
jet power). We find that the distribution of intrinsic luminosity from 1.2 keV
- 50 keV, $L_{\mathrm{intrinsic}}(1.2 - 50)$, is systematically elevated just
before ejections compared to arbitrary times when there are no major ejections.
The estimated $Q$ is strongly correlated with $L_{\mathrm{intrinsic}}(1.2 -
50)$ 0 to 4 hours before the ejection, the increase in
$L_{\mathrm{intrinsic}}(1.2 - 50)$ in the hours preceding the ejection and the
time averaged $L_{\mathrm{intrinsic}}(1.2 - 50)$ during the flare rise.
Furthermore, the total time averaged power during the ejection ($Q$ + the time
average of $L_{\mathrm{intrinsic}}(1.2 - 50)$ during ejection) is strongly
correlated with $L_{\mathrm{intrinsic}}(1.2 - 50)$ just before launch with near
equality if the distance to the source is $ \approx 10.5$ kpc.
