Radiative Efficiency and Content of Extragalactic Radio Sources: Toward a Universal Scaling Relation Between Jet Power and Radio Power

TL;DR

This study investigates the relationship between jet power and radio luminosity in extragalactic radio sources, revealing a broad scatter in radiative efficiency and proposing a more accurate scaling relation that accounts for source age and particle content.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis of the scaling relation between jet power and radio luminosity, incorporating cavity measurements and particle content constraints.

Findings

Jet power scales with radio luminosity as P_jet ~ (L_radio)^beta, with 0.35 < beta < 0.70.

Scatter in the efficiency relation is reduced by ~50% when accounting for source age.

Magnetic field strengths in lobes vary from a few to tens of microgauss, with electron-to-heavy particle ratios up to 4000.

Abstract

We present an analysis of the energetics and particle content of the lobes of 24 radio galaxies at the cores of cooling clusters. The radio lobes in these systems have created visible cavities in the surrounding hot, X-ray-emitting gas, which allow direct measurement of the mechanical jet power of radio sources over six decades of radio luminosity, independently of the radio properties themselves. Using these measurements, we examine the ratio between radio power and total jet power (the radiative efficiency). We find that jet (cavity) power increases with radio synchrotron power approximately as P_jet ~ (L_radio)^beta, where 0.35 < beta < 0.70 depending on the bandpass of measurement and state of the source. However, the scatter about these relations caused by variations in radiative efficiency spans more than four orders of magnitude. After accounting for variations in synchrotron break frequency (age), the scatter is reduced by ~ 50%, yielding the most accurate scaling relation available between the lobe bolometric radio power and the jet (cavity) power. We place limits on the magnetic field strengths and particle content of the radio lobes using a variety of X-ray constraints. We find that the lobe magnetic field strengths vary between a few to several tens of microgauss depending on the age and dynamical state of the lobes. If the cavities are maintained in pressure balance with their surroundings and are supported by internal fields and particles in equipartition, the ratio of energy in electrons to heavy particles (k) must vary widely from approximately unity to 4000, consistent with heavy (hadronic) jets.