Powerful Jets from Radiatively Efficient Disks, a Decades-Old Unresolved Problem in High Energy Astrophysics

Abstract

The discovery of 3C 273 in 1963, and the emergence of the Kerr solution shortly thereafter, precipitated the current era in astrophysics focused on using black holes to explain active galactic nuclei (AGN). But while partial success was achieved in separately explaining the bright nuclei of some AGN via thin disks, as well as powerful jets with thick disks, the combination of both powerful jets in an AGN with a bright nucleus, such as in 3C 273, remained elusive. Although numerical simulations have taken center stage in the last 25 years, they have struggled to produce the conditions that explain them. This is because radiatively efficient disks have proved a challenge to simulate. Radio quasars have thus been the least understood objects in high energy astrophysics. But recent simulations have begun to change this. We explore this milestone in light of scale-invariance and show that transitory jets, possibly related to the jets seen in these recent simulations, as some have proposed, cannot explain radio quasars. We then provide a road map for a resolution.

The Origin and Evolution of Giant Radio Galaxies

“…As we will describe, however, the effect that jets have on their immediate environments depends on the ability to transfer jet energy to the gas in the large FRII (Fanaroff and Riley type II) radio lobes that in turn affects star formation and ultimately the state of accretion in radio galaxies. While FRII jets have a more immediate star formation enhancing ability that is then thwarted as FRI jets come into play (Singh et al, 2021a;Singh et al, 2021b), on larger scales the FRII jet instantiates a change in the accretion state. The focus in this paper is on the feedback that leads to a change in accretion state.…”

Global Understanding of Accretion and Ejection around Black Holes

“…Ref. [1] pointed out that recent numerical simulations have been partially successful to address the issue and much work is needed to single out the physical processes. They provided a road map for a resolution that counterrotating black holes with thin disks should be further explored in new simulations.…”