A Universal Scaling for the Energetics of Relativistic Jets From Black Hole Systems

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a universal scaling law linking the energetics of relativistic jets from black holes across vastly different systems, from gamma-ray bursts to active galactic nuclei, suggesting similar energy dissipation efficiencies.

Contribution

It reveals a universal correlation between jet kinetic power and gamma-ray luminosity, unifying black hole jet physics across 10 orders of magnitude in power.

Findings

Jets in AGNs and GRBs follow the same power-luminosity correlation.

Energy dissipation efficiency is similar across different black hole systems.

The correlation spans over 10 orders of magnitude in jet power.

Abstract

Black holes generate collimated, relativistic jets which have been observed in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), microquasars, and at the center of some galaxies (active galactic nuclei; AGN). How jet physics scales from stellar black holes in GRBs to the supermassive ones in AGNs is still unknown. Here we show that jets produced by AGNs and GRBs exhibit the same correlation between the kinetic power carried by accelerated particles and the gamma-ray luminosity, with AGNs and GRBs lying at the low and high-luminosity ends, respectively, of the correlation. This result implies that the efficiency of energy dissipation in jets produced in black hole systems is similar over 10 orders of magnitude in jet power, establishing a physical analogy between AGN and GRBs.