Outflow-Dominated Emission from the Quiescent Massive Black Holes in NGC 4621 and NGC 4697

TL;DR

This study reveals that the faint emissions from supermassive black holes in NGC 4621 and NGC 4697 are dominated by outflows, challenging traditional accretion-based models for quiescent black holes.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the radio and X-ray emissions in these quiescent black holes are consistent with outflow-dominated models, supported by observational data and the radio-X-ray-mass relation.

Findings

Black holes are in the quiescent regime with very low Eddington ratios.

Radio emissions are consistent with outflow-dominated models.

Observed radio luminosities match predictions from the Yuan & Cui relation.

Abstract

The nearby elliptical galaxies NGC 4621 and NGC 4697 each host a supermassive black hole with a mass more than 1e8 Solar masses. Analysis of archival Chandra data and new NRAO Very Large Array data shows that each galaxy contains a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (LLAGN), identified as a faint, hard X-ray source that is astrometrically coincident with a faint 8.5-GHz source. The latter has a diameter less than 0.3 arcsec (26 pc for NGC 4621, 17 pc for NGC 4697). The black holes energizing these LLAGNs have Eddington ratios L(2-10 keV) / L(Edd) ~ 1e-9, placing them in the so-called quiescent regime. The emission from these quiescent black holes is radio-loud, with log Rx = log nuLnu(8.5 GHz) / L(2-10 keV) ~ -2, suggesting the presence of a radio outflow. Also, application of the radio-X-ray-mass relation from Yuan & Cui for quiescent black holes predicts the observed radio luminosities nuLnu(8.5 GHz) to within a factor of a few. Significantly, that relation invokes X-ray emission from the outflow rather than from an accretion flow. The faint, but detectable, emission from these two massive black holes is therefore consistent with being outflow-dominated. Observational tests of this finding are suggested.