English

Accretion and jet power in active galactic nuclei

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2015-05-28 v2

Abstract

The classical diagrams of radio loudness and jet power as a function of mass and accretion rate of the central spacetime singularity in active galactic nuclei are reanalyzed by including the data of the recently discovered powerful relativistic jets in Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies. The results are studied in the light of the known theories on the relativistic jets, indicating that while the Blandford-Znajek mechanism is sufficient to explain the power radiated by BL Lac Objects, it fails to completely account the power from quasars and Narrow-Line Seyfert 1. This favors the scenario outlined by Cavaliere & D'Elia of a composite jet, with a magnetospheric core plus a hydromagnetic component emerging as the accretion power increases and the disc becomes radiation-pressure dominated. A comparison with Galactic compact objects is also performed, finding some striking similarities, indicating that as the neutron stars are the low-mass jet systems analogue of black holes, the Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies are the low-mass counterpart of the blazars.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1106.5532,
  title  = {Accretion and jet power in active galactic nuclei},
  author = {Luigi Foschini},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1106.5532},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

13 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication on Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics

R2 v1 2026-06-21T18:28:22.294Z