REVISITING THE 'FUNDAMENTAL PLANE' OF BLACK HOLE ACTIVITY AT EXTREMELY LOW LUMINOSITIES

Journal Article · Sun Sep 20 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/703/1/1034· OSTI ID:21371943

Feng, Yuan; Zhaolong, Yu ^[1]

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1. Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030 (China)

We investigate the origin of the X-ray emission in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs). Yuan and Cui predicted that the X-ray emission should originate from jets rather than an advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) when the X-ray luminosity L{sub X} of the source is below a critical value of L{sub X,crit} {approx} 10{sup -6} L{sub Edd}. This prediction implies that the X-ray spectrum in such sources should be fitted by jets rather than ADAFs. Furthermore, below L{sub X,crit} the correlation between radio (L{sub R}) and X-ray (L{sub X}) luminosities and the black hole mass (M)-the so-called fundamental plane of black hole activity-should deviate from the general correlation obtained by Merloni et al. and become steeper. The Merloni et al. correlation is described by logL{sub R} = 0.6logL{sub X} + 0.78logM + 7.33, while the predicted correlation is logL{sub R} = 1.23logL{sub X} + 0.25logM - 13.45. We collect data from the literature to check the validity of these two expectations. We find that among the 16 LLAGNs with good X-ray and radio spectra, 13 are consistent with the Yuan and Cui prediction. For the 22 LLAGNs with L{sub X} < L{sub X,crit}, the fundamental plane correlation is described by logL{sub R} = 1.22logL{sub X} + 0.23logM - 12.46, also in excellent agreement with the prediction.

• OSTI ID: 21371943
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 703; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ACCRETION DISKS
ADVECTION
BLACK HOLES
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EMISSION
GALAXIES
GALAXY NUCLEI
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LUMINOSITY
MASS
MASS TRANSFER
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHOTON EMISSION
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
QUASARS
RADIATIONS
SPECTRA
X RADIATION
X-RAY SPECTRA