The relation between accretion rate and jet power in early-type galaxies with thermally unstable hot atmospheres

TL;DR

This study finds a strong correlation between accretion rates and jet power in early-type galaxies with thermally unstable atmospheres, suggesting gas cooling feeds black holes efficiently, with implications for galaxy evolution models.

Contribution

It demonstrates a tight power-law relation between Bondi accretion power and jet power specifically in galaxies with thermally unstable atmospheres, highlighting the role of cooling gas in jet fueling.

Findings

Strong correlation between Bondi accretion power and jet power in selected galaxies.

Jet power correlates tightly with black hole mass in Hα+[NII] emitting galaxies.

Weaker correlation observed in galaxies without signs of thermal instability.

Abstract

We use Chandra X-ray data and Very Large Array radio observations for a sample of 20 nearby, massive, X-ray bright, early-type galaxies to investigate the relation between the Bondi accretion rates and the mechanical jet powers. We find a strong correlation ($\rho = 0.96^{+0.03}_{-0.09}$; BF$_{10} > 100$) between the Bondi accretion power, $P_{\text{Bondi}}$, and the mechanical jet power, $P_{\text{jet}}$, for a subsample of 14 galaxies, which also host cool H$\alpha$+[NII] line emitting gas and thus likely have thermally unstable atmospheres. The relation between the Bondi accretion power and the mechanical jet power for this subsample is well described by a power-law model $\log \frac{P_{\mathrm{Bondi}}}{{10^{43} \, \mathrm{erg \, s^{-1}}}} = \alpha + \beta \log \frac{P_{\mathrm{jet}}}{{10^{43} \, \mathrm{erg \, s^{-1}}}}$, where $\alpha = 1.10 \pm 0.25$ and $\beta = 1.10 \pm 0.24$ with an intrinsic scatter $\sigma = 0.08^{+0.14}_{-0.06}$ dex. The results indicate that in all galaxies with thermally unstable atmospheres the cooling atmospheric gas feeds the central black holes at a similar jet-to-Bondi power ratio. For the full sample of 20 galaxies, the correlation is weaker and in a subset of galaxies with no signs of H$\alpha$+[NII] emission, we see a hint for a systematically lower jet-to-Bondi power ratio. We also investigate the dependence of jet power on individual quantities in the Bondi formula such as the supermassive black hole mass ($M_{\bullet}$) and the specific entropy of the gas ($K$) at the Bondi radius. For the subsample of H$\alpha$+[NII] emitting galaxies, we find a very tight correlation of $P_{\text{jet}}$ with $M_{\bullet}$ ($\rho = 0.91^{+0.06}_{-0.11}$; BF$_{10} > 100$) and, although poorly constrained, a hint of an anti-correlation for $P_{\text{jet}}$ and $K$ ($\rho = -0.47^{+0.60}_{-0.37}$; BF$_{10} = 1.1$).