Scale-invariant jet suppression across the black hole mass scale

TL;DR

This paper presents a unified framework explaining jet suppression in soft state black hole X-ray binaries, emphasizing the role of magnetic flux and disk geometry across different black hole masses.

Contribution

It introduces a simple physical model based on the Blandford-Payne process to understand jet suppression related to disk geometry and magnetic flux threading in black hole systems.

Findings

Jet suppression is linked to the geometrical thinness of accretion disks.

Mass-loading of magnetic field lines is less effective in thin disks.

The framework applies broadly across different black hole masses.

Abstract

We provide a schematic framework for understanding observations of jet suppression in soft state black hole X-ray binaries based on the Blandford-Payne process and the net magnetic flux threading the black hole. Due to the geometrical thinness of soft state disks, mass-loading of field lines is ineffective compared to both geometrically thick disks as well as thin disks with greater black hole threading flux, a simple physical picture that allows us to understand the weakness of jets in radiatively efficient thin disks accreting in the prograde direction around high-spinning black holes. Despite a simplicity that forbids insights into the complexity of turbulent-driven evolution or the physics of the observed short-term time variability, we show how the breadth of this framework is such that it can serve as a coarse-grained foundation for understanding black hole accretion and jet formation across the mass scale.