the accretion mode - morphology link in radio-loud agn jets: towards a more complete unification...

The Accretion Mode - Morphology Link in Radio-Loud AGN jets:

Towards a More Complete Unification Scheme

Eileen Meyer

Rice UniversityUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore County

(Space Telescope Science Institute)

26 June 2012Black Holes by the Black Sea

Istanbul, Turkey

2/26Introduction 2/28

“From the Blazar Sequence to the Blazar Envelope: Revisiting the Relativistic Jet Dichotomy” ApJ (2011) 740:98

“Radio Loud AGN Unification: Jet Power, Orientation, and Accretion Mode” (in preparation, Georganopoulos et al.)

Markos Georganopoulos, UMBC

Giovanni Fossati, Rice University

Matt Lister, Purdue University


SMBH106-1010 Msol

Accretion Disk → Luminosities up to ~ 1046 erg/, peak in UV

Molecular Torus → size up to ~pc

Broad Line Region (BLR): 10-100 ld

l

Narrow Line Region (NLR): scales > MT(seen at all angles)

l

Relativistic Jet, Γ = 2-40

Up to ~Mpc

θ

Major Questions- How are Jets formed and launched from the SMBH?- What creates the RQ/RL divide? - Role of Accretion Mode and/or Spin?

Radio Loud AGN- Jets in radio galaxies vs. blazar view- Morphology/Structure of the Jet?- Site of the gamma-ray emission? → Georganopoulos talk this afternoon- Is there an accretion mode dichotomy?

→ what can we learn from studying large populations?


Radio Galaxy

Blazars

Zeroth Order: Orientation-based Unification:

FR I: brightest at the center, “plumey jets” FR II: brightest in

the lobes, collimated jets

Direct view of the jet!


Radio Loud AGN Unification(beyond orientation)

FR I

FR II

Radio Galaxy Morphology

Blazar Spectral Type

Low power, weak lines)

High power, high excitation spectra

FSRQ

BL Lac

(Many notable exceptions!)

ADAF

Thin disk


RL AGN: Unification Problems

- FR I/II morphology divide not strictly luminosity (accretion rate?)

- Evolution – positive/negative?

- Mixed spectral types (many low-excitation FR II)

- low-power FSRQ, high-power BL Lacs

- Problems with the Blazar Sequence...


The Blazar View of the Relativistic Jet

Synchrotron emission

Inverse Compton(source of upscattered

photons not well understood)

Isotropic Radio Emission from Slowed Plasma in the Lobes

Peak frequency, wide range


The Blazar Sequence

Row 1 Row 2 Row 3 Row 40

2

4

6

8

10

12

Column 1

Column 2

Column 3

+ Jet Power Increases- νpeak decreases+ Lpeak/LR Increases+ IC dominance increases+ BLLs to FSRQ spectral change


Sources here were found (Nieppola 2006, Landt 2006, Caccianiga 2004)

BL Lacs: Jet Power uncorrelated with νp

How does continuous sequence match morphology/accretion divide?

Part I: The Blazar Envelope 10/28

Relativistic Beaming

θ

Θ increasing

Relativistic Doppler Boosting of Apparent Luminosity is dependent on θ, Γ. 4:1


Hypothesis: The Blazar SequenceEnvelope

Jet Power Increases (blue → red)Along 0° path (gray): Lp increases

νp decreases

Departing from the sequence, sources drop in Luminosity and frequency as θ increases

Need to measure: Orientation (θ) Intrinsic Jet Power

(good Lp, νp )

Hypothesis: The Blazar Sequence


Part I: Revisiting the Blazar Sequence

Is there a monoparametric Sequence?

(1) Measure (unbeamed) Jet Power

(2) Measure the alignment – how does angle of observations affect what we see?

– Hint: Jet structure may become more apparent at large θ

(3) Build Up a large Sample – better SED sampling


Methods

Lobe Emission “sticks up”

Core is faint in the radio (not beamed)

II. Orientation: Radio Core DominanceCavity Power

(P*ΔV/time)

Extended, Low-frequency PowerCavagnolo, et al. 2010


Results

BLLs

Radio Galaxies

FSRQ & BLLs


Results“Simple jet”

(single Γ)

“Decelerating Flow” model (Georganopoulos et al 2005)

Two Branches?


New Hypothesis: A Strong/Weak Dichotomy?

Strong Jets:– All High Lkin (> 1044.5 erg s-1), some lower Lkin

– (Nearly) All FSRQ, many BL Lacs

– Low νp (< 1015 Hz), Reach highest Lp

– Associated with FR IIs (based on Lkin)

Weak Jets:– Only at low Lkin (< 1044.5 erg s-1)

– (Nearly) All BL Lacs

– All high νp (> 1015 Hz), some low νp?– Associated with FR Is (based on Lkin)

S

W


New Hypothesis: A Strong/Weak Dichotomy?

Next Questions:1) Is the divide real?2) Linked to Accretion Mode? Spectral Type mixed?3) Jet Power? (not clean divide)4) Sequence 'broken'?


Some Questions Answered

Low νp , low Lp sources?→ These appear to be misaligned.

Lkin (Lext) does not vary with νp for BL Lacs?→ Consistent with our findings: Horizontal movement due to velocity

gradients in jet

Sources at low νp have range of Lkin?

→ Consistent with our findings: All 'misalignment paths' meet at low νp

Part II: Accretion and the Broken Sequence 19/28

Part II: Accretion Mode and the Broken Power Sequence

Accretion Modes – driving the FR I/FR II divide?

Critical value m'~10-2.5

Ghisellini et al. 2001

Jet Power

BH mass


(Mass estimates from reverberation mapping, velocity dispersions,

mass-luminosity scalings)

Lkin

, θ, °… m?

Weak Jets = Inefficient Strong Jets = Efficient


The Broken Power Sequence

Inefficient

Efficient


The Meaning of Spectral Type: BL Lacs on the strong branch?


The Meaning of Spectral Type: BL Lacs on the strong branch?

1:4 Δfrequency:ΔLuminosityδ/δ

0 = ν

peak/ν

0


Summary: The Broken Power Sequence

log Lkin=43m'= 1x10-4

log Lkin=44.5m'= 1x10-2.5

Let's follow 109msol SMBH at 0° (log Ledd ~ 47)



Conclusions/Key Observations+ Suggestion of Two populations: “weak” / “strong”

+ Jet Power important, but not fundamental: Accretion Mode Difference?

+ Spectral types (FSRQ, BLL) are affected by beaming, not reliable!

+ Observations consistent with a change in accretion mode at a critical rate of ~ 10-2 Eddington rate, linked to a divide in jet SED characteristics.

+ The sequence may exist in 'broken' form:

Next Steps

- Complete a detailed study of high-energy emission seen by Fermi

- Expand the sample to include narrow-line Seyfert galaxies

- Look at VLBI data: jet speeds, morphologies

- Expand the sample

- Radio Galaxies need to be studied more

The end(this slide intentionally left blank)


Part III: The High-Energy Properties of RL AGN


Synchrotron Self-Compton (SSC) versus

External Compton (EC)

SSC – upscatter synchrotron photons-IC peak is a “copy” of synchrotron

-beaming pattern is the same:

L ~ δ3+α synchrotron peak or IC peak

EC – upscatter photons from outside the jet (BLR, molecular torus, accretion disk?)

-beaming pattern is different:

L ~ δ3+α synchrotron peak

L ~ δ4+2α IC peak

(For radio, Lcore/Lext ~ L ~ δ3+α, α ~ 0.2 )


EC in powerful jets?Trend of increasing Compton Dominance (Rp) with Rce – only for most powerful sources!

Many “strong jets” down here – SSC?


Apparent Jet Speed


Apparent speed is maximum in the middle of the correlation, as expected.


EC in powerful jets?Trend of increasing Compton Dominance (Rp) with Rce – only for most powerful sources!

Many “strong jets” down here – why?


EC versus SSCVery High Power jets → ECVery High Power jets → ECModerately High Power jets –> ? SSC?Moderately High Power jets –> ? SSC?

Only Very High Power FSRQ show this collective behavior: A possible clue to the Gamma-ray emission site?

BLR versus Molecular Torus: IF SSC dominates in moderate FSRQ, synchrotron energy density must be greater than external photon energy density - while the reverse holds in powerful FSRQ. This can be cast as a critical value of Lorentz Factor :

MT: critical value ~ 16BLR: critical value ~ 8


If the plasma emitting in different zones (e.g., radio versus gamma-ray) have

different speeds (Γ), and thus different δ

and the relationships will not be linear!

The larger the difference, the more curvature


What can we learn from Fermi ?

Rce, Lkin can predict Lg1.1,1.5,1.4,1.3,1.5


Beaming Patterns: Expectations

Synchrotron: generally, L = L0δp+α (p=3 or 2) → LR = LR,0δ3+α' while Lp = Lp,0δ4 (ssc)

-or- Lp = Lp,0δ6 (EC)

[assume δ are the same...]

X not seen?


Orientation (Rce)

Expectation:As core dominance increases, νp will increase

No single track?


Low Luminosity High Luminosity(ADAFs?) (thin-disk?)

RL: FR I & BL Lacs FR II & FSRQ

RQ: Seyferts quasars

AGN

XRBs ? low hard state high soft state


Orientation (Rce)

Clear break between RG, blazars

“striping” - indicates that Lkin and L0 are linked

the accretion mode - morphology link in radio-loud agn jets: towards a more complete unification...

Documents

blazar sequence slide

blazar envelope

disk slide

turkey slide

jet power uncorrelated

purdue university slide

radio loud agn unification

radioloud agn jets