The relation between accretion rate and jet power in X-ray luminous elliptical galaxies

By S. Allen, R. Dunn, A. C. Fabian, G. Taylor, C. Reynolds. 2006

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Using Chandra X-ray observations of nine nearby, X-ray luminous elliptical galaxies with good optical velocity dispersion measurements, we show that a tight correlation exists between the Bondi accretion rates calculated from the observed gas temperature and density profiles and estimated black hole masses, and the power emerging from these systems in relativistic jets. The jet powers, which are inferred from the energies and timescales required to inflate cavities observed in the surrounding X-ray emitting gas, can be related to the accretion rates using a power law model of the form log(PBondi/10 43 ergs 1 ) = A + B log(Pjet/10 43 ergs 1 ), with A = 0.65± 0.16 and B = 0.77± 0.20. Our results show that a significant fraction of the energy associated with the rest mass of material entering the Bondi accretion radius (2.2 +1.0 0.7 per cent, for Pjet = 10 43 ergs 1 ) eventually emerges in the relativistic jets. The data also hint that this fraction may rise slightly with increasing jet power. Our results have significant implications for studies of accretion, jet formation and galaxy formation. The observed tight correlation suggests that the Bondi formulae provide a reasonable description of the accretion process in these systems, despite the likely presence of magnetic pressure and angular momentum in the accreting gas. The similarity of the PBondi and Pjet values argues that a significant fraction of the matter entering the accretion radius flows down to regions close to the black holes, where the jets are presumably formed. The tight correlation between PBondi and Pjet also suggests that the accretion flows are approximately stable over timescales of a few million years. Our results show that the black hole ‘engines’ at the hearts of large elliptical galaxies and groups can feed back sufficient energy to stem cooling and s formation, leading naturally to the observed exponential cut off at the bright end of the galaxy luminosity function.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8d31d46029b882f246fe1d274d86aa32cdd849ae

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Citations in the corpus

Simulations of AGN Feedback in Galaxy Clusters and Groups: Impact on Gas Fractions and the LX-T Scaling Relation (2008, result): “We assume the mechanical feedback efficiency provided by the bubbles to be 2% of the accreted rest massenergy, which is in good agreement with observations of X– ray luminous elliptical galaxies (Allen et al. 2006).”
Relativistic jet feedback in high-redshift galaxies – I. Dynamics (2016, background): “The density consists of an isothermal hot (T ∼ 107 K; typical of galaxy clusters and elliptical galaxies, Allen et al. 2006; Croston et al. 2008; Diehl & Statler 2008; Maughan et al. 2012; Goulding et al. 2016) halo in hydrostatic equilibrium and a dense warm (T 3.4 × 104 K) turbulent and…”
Heating Hot Atmospheres with Active Galactic Nuclei (2007, background): “Bondi accretion may power the AGN in gEs (Allen et al. 2006) but is probably unable to do so in more massive cD galaxies.”
THREE-DIMENSIONAL SIMULATIONS OF DYNAMICS OF ACCRETION FLOWS IRRADIATED BY A QUASAR (2007, neutral): “This assumption is motivated by X-ray observations showing that quasar radiation heats a low-density gas, on scales comparable to the Bondi radius, up to an equilibrium Compton temperature of about 2 × 107 K (Sazonov et al. 2005; Allen et al. 2006 and references therein).”
Shaping the galaxy stellar mass function with supernova- and AGN-driven winds (2012, result): “The mechanical feedback efficiency provided by the bubbles is taken to be 2% of the accreted rest massenergy, which is in good agreement with X–ray observations of elliptical galaxies (Allen et al. 2006).”
A unified model for AGN feedback in cosmological simulations of structure formation (2007, result): “Interestingly, we also find that our BHAR of massive BHs at z = 0 agrees very well with a recent estimate of the Bondi accretion rate for a sample of X-ray luminous elliptical galaxies by Allen et al. (2006).”
On the fundamental dichotomy in the local radio-AGN population (2012, background): “The energies estimated for the radio sources correlate well with the Bondi accretion rates expected from the hot gas (Allen et al. 2006); this suggests that this hot gas may form both the fuel for the radio source, and the repository of its energy, offering the potential for a feedback cycle.”
On the prevalence of radio‐loud active galactic nuclei in brightest cluster galaxies: implications for AGN heating of cooling flows (2006, methodology): “…(2006) suggested that one possibility for the accretion mechanism is Bondi–Hoyle accretion from a strong cooling flow (see also the recent work of Allen et al. 2006); the accretion rate for this is given by Croton et al. (2006) as ṁBondi ≈ GμmpkT MBH/ , where μmp is the mean mass of particles…”
GRMHD simulations of magnetized advection‐dominated accretion on a non‐spinning black hole: role of outflows (2012, background): “Allen et al. (2006) showed that a number of low-luminosity active galactic nuclei have radio jets with implied powers that are a reasonable fraction of accretion energy at the Bondi rate from the surrounding interstellar medium.”
Self-regulated growth of supermassive black holes by a dual jet-heating active galactic nucleus feedback mechanism: methods, tests and implications for cosmological simulations (2011, result): “…the spin-up of BHs caused by gas accretion by angular momentum extraction through a jet naturally leads to an equilibrium high spin value of the BHs, that is, a/M = 0.93 corresponding to typical efficiencies f,r ∼ 0.1 and which seem to agree quite well with local observations (Allen et al. 2006).”
Investigating AGN heating in a sample of nearby clusters (2006, methodology): “The energies and time-scales for the bubbles were calculated from values for the radii in Allen et al. (2006), Dunn et al. (2005), Dunn & Fabian (2004), except for 2A 0335+096 which are from Bı̂rzan et al. (2004).”
The Coevolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe (2014, background): “Allen et al. (2006) showed that for a sample of 9 nearby systems, a strong correlation exists between the calculated Bondi accretion rate and the jet mechanical energy estimated from the cavities inflated in the surrounding gas.”
A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. II. Formation of Red Ellipticals (2007, background): “Observations indicate that pseudobulges constitute only a small fraction of the total mass density in spheroids (P10%; see Allen et al. 2006a; Ball et al. 2006; Driver et al. 2007), becoming a large fraction of the bulge population only in small bulges in late-type hosts (e.g., Sb/c, corresponding…”
FEEDBACK FROM CENTRAL BLACK HOLES IN ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES. III. MODELS WITH BOTH RADIATIVE AND MECHANICAL FEEDBACK (2010, background): “Also, the effect of mechanical feedback due to a jet, which is relevant at low accretion luminosities (i.e., during the hot phase accretion common at late times, e.g. see Allen et al. 2006, Merloni & Heinz 2007), is not included.”
BLACK HOLE SPIN AND THE RADIO LOUD/QUIET DICHOTOMY OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (2009, methodology): “The spin paradigm has been invoked to explain the observed correlation between jet and accretion power in elliptical galaxies (Allen et al. 2006) by combining an ADAF accretion model with the BZ effect (Nemmen et al. 2007; Benson & Babul 2009).”
Stability of relativistic jets from rotating, accreting black holes via fully three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations (2008, background): “Soltan efficiency (and other) arguments suggest quasars contain BHs that are rapidly spinning (e.g. Gammie et al. 2004) and maybe maximally spinning (e.g. Allen et al. 2006).”