Scale invariant jets: from blazars to microquasars

TL;DR

This study uncovers a universal scaling law linking intrinsic radio luminosity and black hole mass across a vast range of systems, from microquasars to blazars, enhancing our understanding of jet physics.

Contribution

It demonstrates for the first time a strong correlation between intrinsic radio luminosity and black hole mass in blazars, extending the scale invariance hypothesis to these sources.

Findings

A universal scaling law between radio luminosity and black hole mass.

Extension of the scaling law over nine orders of magnitude.

Provision of a new method to estimate Doppler factors and predict radio luminosities.

Abstract

Black holes, anywhere in the stellar-mass to supermassive range, are often associated with relativistic jets. Models suggest that jet production may be a universal process common in all black hole systems regardless of their mass. Although in many cases observations support such hypotheses for microquasars and Seyfert galaxies, little is known on whether boosted blazar jets also comply with such universal scaling laws. We use uniquely rich multiwavelength radio light curves from the F-GAMMA program and the most accurate Doppler factors available to date to probe blazar jets in their emission rest frame with unprecedented accuracy. We identify for the first time a strong correlation between the blazar intrinsic broad-band radio luminosity and black hole mass, which extends over $\sim$ 9 orders of magnitude down to microquasars scales. Our results reveal the presence of a universal scaling law that bridges the observing and emission rest frames in beamed sources and allows us to effectively constrain jet models. They consequently provide an independent method for estimating the Doppler factor, and for predicting expected radio luminosities of boosted jets operating in systems of intermediate or tens-of-solar mass black holes, immediately applicable to cases as those recently observed by LIGO.