Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory will hold a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Monday, April 24, to announce a fundamental discovery about black holes.

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Briefing participants:

  • Steven Allen, assistant professor, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.
  • Christopher Reynolds, associate professor, University of Maryland, College Park
  • Kimberly Weaver, astrophysicist, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0602549 

From: Steven Allen [view email]
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 22:01:52 GMT   (564kb)

The relation between accretion rate and jet power in X-ray luminous elliptical galaxies
Authors:
S.W. Allen (KIPAC, Stanford),
R.J.H. Dunn,
A.C. Fabian (IoA, Cambridge),
G.B. Taylor (UNM),
C.S. Reynolds (UMD)
Comments: Submitted for publication in MNRAS (Jan 2006). 10 pages, 5 figures

Using Chandra X-ray observations of 9 nearby, X-ray luminous ellipticals with
good optical velocity dispersion measurements, we show that a tight correlation
exists between the Bondi accretion rates calculated from the X-ray data and
estimated black hole masses, and the power emerging from these systems in
relativistic jets. The jet powers, inferred from the energies and timescales
required to inflate the cavities observed in the surrounding X-ray emitting
gas, can be related to the accretion rates by a power law model. A significant
fraction (2.4^{+1.0}_{-0.7} per cent, for P_jet=10^{43} erg/s) of the energy
associated with the rest mass of material entering the accretion radius emerges
in the jets. Our results have significant implications for studies of
accretion, jet formation and galaxy formation. The tight correlation between
P_Bondi and P_jet suggests that the Bondi formulae provide a reasonable
description of the accretion process, despite the likely presence of magnetic
pressure and angular momentum in the accreting gas, and that the accretion
flows are approximately stable over timescales of a few million years. Our
results show that the black hole engines at the hearts of large elliptical
galaxies and groups feed back sufficient energy to stem cooling and star
formation, leading naturally to the observed exponential cut off at the bright
end of the galaxy luminosity function.

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