Published October 26, 2022 | Version v1
Poster Open

Relation between accretion rate and jet power in early-type galaxies

  • 1. Masaryk University
  • 2. Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
  • 3. INAF, Milano
  • 4. SRON, Leiden
  • 5. Stanford University

Description

Using Chandra X-ray and VLA radio observations for 20 early-type galaxies, we have confirmed the presence of a correlation between Bondi accretion power and mechanical jet power in early-type galaxies previously reported by Allen et al. 2006. We show that a particularly strong correlation holds for galaxies with thermally unstable atmospheres, as indicated by the presence of cool gas traced by Hα+[NII] emission and min(tcool / tff) < ~10, while for the whole sample of galaxies the correlation is weaker. Importantly, we find a strong correlation between the mechanical jet power and the mass of the central supermassive black hole and, although poorly constrained, a hint of an anti-correlation with the specific entropy (K) of the ambient gas inside the Bondi radius. The results indicate that at least for thermally unstable systems, the jet power is set primarily by the supermassive black hole mass. Since the central black hole mass of X-ray luminous early-type galaxies correlates with the total mass of the host halo, more massive systems undergoing thermally unstable cooling will naturally have larger jet powers.

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