Extragalactic jets: a new perspective

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new perspective on extragalactic jets, linking their power and emission characteristics to black hole mass and accretion rate, and introduces a revised blazar sequence based on these parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a novel blazar sequence model that relates jet power and spectral energy distribution to black hole mass and accretion rate, differing from traditional luminosity-based models.

Findings

Jet power is mainly kinetic energy of electron-proton plasma.

High-energy emission is dominated by inverse Compton process.

A new blazar sequence based on black hole mass and accretion rate.

Abstract

The power carried by the jet of blazars is large, compared to the luminosity produced by their accretion disk, and is probably in the form of kinetic energy of a normal electron-proton plasma. The Poynting flux is modest, as suggested by the inconspicuous synchrotron luminosity when compared to the high energy (hard X-rays and gamma-ray) one, assumed to be produced by the inverse Compton process. It is suggested that the jet power and the SED (Spectral Energy Distribution) of its emission are linked to the mass of the black hole M and the accretion rate dot M. This corresponds to a new "blazar sequence" based on M and dot M instead of only the observed blazar luminosity. These ideas can be tested quite easily once the AGILE and especially the GLAST satellite observations, coupled with information in the optical/X-ray band from Swift, will allow the knowledge of the entire SED of hundreds blazars.