Radio-loudness of Active Galaxies and the Black Hole Evolution
arXiv:0802.2302 · doi:10.1016/j.newar.2008.03.021
Abstract
Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) form two distinct sequences on the radio-loudness -- Eddington-ratio plane. The `upper' sequence contains radio selected AGNs, the `lower' sequence is composed mainly of optically selected AGNs. The sequences mark the upper bounds for the radio-loudness of two distinct populations of AGNs, hosted respectively by elliptical and disk galaxies. Both sequences show the same dependence of the radio-loudness on the Eddington ratio (an increase with decreasing Eddington ratio), which suggests that another parameter in addition to the accretion rate must play a role in determining the efficiency of jet production in AGNs. We speculate that this additional parameter is the spin of the black hole, assuming that black holes in giant elliptical galaxies have (on average) much larger spins than black holes in disc galaxies. Possible evolutionary scenarios leading to such a spin dichotomy are discussed. The galaxy-morphology related radio-dichotomy breaks down at high accretion rates where the dominant fraction of luminous quasars being hosted by giant ellipticals is radio quiet. This indicates that the production of powerful jets at high accretion rates is in most cases suppressed and, in analogy to X-ray binary systems (XRB) during high and very high states, may be intermittent. Such intermittency can be caused by switches between two different accretion modes, assuming that only during one of them an outflow from the central engine is sufficiently collimated to form a relativistic jet.
arXiv comment9 pages, 5 figures included. To be published in New Astronomy Review (Proceedings of the meeting `JPL, X-ray Binaries, Accretion Disks, and Compact Stars'; October 2007; ed. M.A. Abramowicz)
References in corpus (62)
- Galaxy Bimodality due to Cold Flows and Shock Heating
- Local Supermassive Black Holes, Relics of Active Galactic Nuclei and the X-ray Background
- Towards a unified model for black hole X-ray binary jets
- Observational constraints on growth of massive black holes
- AGN Black Hole Masses and Bolometric Luminosities
- A universal radio/X-ray correlation in low/hard state black hole binaries
- Formation of Galactic Nuclei
- General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Jet Formation and Large-Scale Propagation from Black Hole Accretion Systems
- Radio-Loudness of Active Galactic Nuclei: Observational Facts and Theoretical Implications
- Optical and Radio Properties of Extragalactic Sources Observed by the FIRST and SDSS Surveys
- Rapid formation of exponential disks and bulges at high redshift from the dynamical evolution of clump cluster and chain galaxies
- Chandra Snapshot Observations of Low-Luminosity AGNs with a Compact Radio Source
- The FIRST Bright Quasar Survey. II. 60 Nights and 1200 Spectra Later
- The distribution and cosmic evolution of massive black hole spins
- The Difference between Radio-Loud and Radio-Quiet Active Galaxies
- On the Relationship Between Radio Emission and Black Hole Mass in Galactic Nuclei
- Magnetically Driven Jets in the Kerr Metric
- Aligning spinning black holes and accretion discs
- On Black Hole Masses and Radio Loudness in AGN
- Fueling Low-Level AGN Activity Through the Stochastic Accretion of Cold Gas
- Total and Jet Blandford-Znajek Power in Presence of Accretion Disk
- Most Supermassive Black Holes must be Rapidly Rotating
- Jet directions in Seyfert galaxies
- The Centers of Early-Type Galaxies with HST. VI. Bimodal Central Surface Brightness Profiles
- Double-Peaked Low-Ionization Emission Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
- Nuclear Luminosities and Radio Loudness of Seyfert Nuclei
- Signals from the Noise: Image Stacking for Quasars in the FIRST Survey
- Accretion states and radio loudness in Active Galactic Nuclei: analogies with X-ray binaries
- Radio Loud and Radio Quiet Active Galactic Nuclei
- MCG-6-30-15: Long Timescale X-Ray Variability, Black Hole Mass and AGN High States
- The Connection Between Radio Quiet AGN and the High/Soft State of X-Ray Binaries
- The alignment of disk and black hole spins in active galactic nuclei
- Black-Hole Spin and Galactic Morphology
- The X-ray and Radio Connection in Low-luminosity Active Nuclei
- The relationship between radio luminosity and black-hole mass in optically-selected quasars
- The host galaxies of luminous quasars
- Magnetic flux captured by an accretion disk
- The evolution of misaligned accretion discs and spinning black holes
- Observational Evidence for the Co-evolution of Galaxy Mergers, Quasars, and the Blue/Red Galaxy Transition
- The formation of galaxy stellar cores by the hierarchical merging of supermassive black holes
- On The Nature of Low Luminosity Narrow Line AGN
- The Disk-Jet Connection in Microquasars and AGN
- Is there a Dichotomy in the Radio Loudness Distribution of Quasars?
- Testing the Unified Model with an Infrared Selected Sample of Seyfert Galaxies
- On the spin paradigm and the radio dichotomy of quasars
- The origin of the Narrow Line Region of Mrk 3: an overpressured jet cocoon
- Nuclear Cusps and Cores in Early-type Galaxies As Relics of Binary Black Hole Mergers
- Iron Line Profiles in Strong Gravity
- Truncated disc versus extremely broad iron line in XTE J1650-500
- A Radio Study of the Seyfert galaxy Markarian 6: Implications for Seyfert life-cycles
- The Radio Loud / Radio Quiet dichotomy: news from the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey
- Evidence for Rapidly Spinning Black Holes in Quasars
- The host galaxy/AGN connection in nearby early-type galaxies. A new view of the origin of the radio-quiet/radio-loud dichotomy?
- The HST view of LINERs nuclei: evidence for a dual population?
- Radio-loud flares from microquasars and radio-loudness of quasars
- Black hole mass and accretion rate of active galactic nuclei with double-peaked broad emission lines
- Constraints on Galactic Intermediate Mass Black Holes
- Variability of black hole accretion discs: The cool, thermal disc component
- Magnetic collimation of the relativistic jet in M87
- The host galaxy/AGN connection. Brightness profiles of early-type galaxies hosting Seyfert nuclei
- An XMM-Newton survey of broad iron lines in AGN
- An extreme, blueshifted iron line profile in the Narrow Line Seyfert 1 PG 1402+261; an edge-on accretion disk or highly ionized absorption?