Scale-invariant jet suppression across the black hole mass scale

Abstract

We provide a schematic framework for understanding observations of jet suppression in soft state black hole X-ray binaries based on the Blandford-Payne process and the net magnetic flux threading the black hole. Due to the geometrical thinness of soft state disks, mass-loading of field lines is ineffective compared to both geometrically thick disks as well as thin disks with greater black hole threading flux, a simple physical picture that allows us to understand the weakness of jets in radiatively efficient thin disks accreting in the prograde direction around high-spinning black holes. Despite a simplicity that forbids insights into the complexity of turbulent-driven evolution or the physics of the observed short-term time variability, we show how the breadth of this framework is such that it can serve as a coarse-grained foundation for understanding black hole accretion and jet formation across the mass scale.

arXiv commentPublished in Astrophysics & Space Science

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• The redshift distribution of BL Lacs and FSRQs
• Powerful Jets from Radiatively Efficient Disks, a Decades-Old Unresolved Problem in High Energy Astrophysics
• The generalized hardness-intensity diagram for black hole and neutron star X-ray binaries
• The unusual active galaxy H1821+643 and the elusive nature of FRI quasars
• Winds Versus Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei