AGN Jet Kinetic Power and the Energy Budget of Radio Galaxy Lobes

TL;DR

This paper investigates the energy budgets of FRI and FRII radio galaxy lobes, revealing that their kinetic power and radiative efficiencies are more similar than previously thought, challenging existing models of their differences.

Contribution

It introduces a new method to measure jet kinetic energy flux in FRII radio sources and compares it with FRI measurements, finding surprising similarities in their energy relations.

Findings

Approximate agreement in Q(jet) - L(radio) relations for FRI and FRII galaxies.

Environmental factors and shocks may influence radiative efficiencies.

Extrapolation from FRI relations reasonably estimates high-power sources.

Abstract

Recent results based on the analysis of radio galaxies and their hot X-ray emitting atmospheres suggest that non-radiating particles dominate the energy budget in the lobes of FRI radio galaxies, in some cases by a factor of more than 1000, while radiating particles dominate the energy budget in FRII radio galaxy lobes. This implies a significant difference in the radiative efficiency of the two morphological classes. To test this hypothesis, we have measured the kinetic energy flux for a sample of 3C FRII radio sources using a new method based on the observed parameters of the jet terminal hotspots, and compared the resulting Q(jet) - L(radio) relation to that obtained for FRI radio galaxies based on X-ray cavity measurements. Contrary to expectations, we find approximate agreement between the Q(jet) - L(radio) relations determined separately for FRI and FRII radio galaxies. This result is ostensibly difficult to reconcile with the emerging scenario in which the lobes of FRI and FRII radio galaxies have vastly different energy budgets. However, a combination of lower density environment, spectral ageing and strong shocks driven by powerful FRII radio galaxies may reduce the radiative efficiency of these objects relative to FRIs and couteract, to some extent, the higher radiative efficiency expected to arise due to the lower fraction of energy in non-radiating particles. An unexpected corollary is that extrapolating the Q(jet) - L(radio) relation determined for low power FRI radio galaxies provides a reasonable approximation for high power sources, despite their apparently different lobe compositions.