http://arxiv.org/abs/2007.12661
Our understanding of the unification of jetted AGN has evolved greatly as jet samples have increased in size (e.g. 132 sources for the blazar sequence of Fossati et al., (1998), 257 for the blazar envelope of Meyer et al., (2011)). Here, based on the largest-ever sample of over 2000 well-sampled jet spectral energy distributions, we examine the synchrotron peak frequency — peak luminosity plane, and find that the anti-correlation known as the blazar sequence does not exist. Instead, we find strong evidence for a dichotomy in jets, between those associated with efficient or `quasar-mode’ accretion (strong jets) and those associated with inefficient accretion (weak jets). The strong jets include those hosted by high-excitation radio galaxies, flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQ), and most low-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects. The weak jets include those hosted by low-excitation radio galaxies and blazars with synchrotron peak frequency above 10^15 Hz (nearly all BL Lac objects). We have derived estimates of the total jet power for over 1000 of our sources from low-frequency radio observations, and find that the strong/weak jet dichotomy does not correspond to a division in jet power. Rather, strong jets are produced at all observed jet powers, down to the lowest levels in our sample, while weak jets range from low to moderately high jet powers, with a clear upper bound at 10^43 erg/s. The range of jet power in each class matches exactly what is expected for efficient (i.e., a few to 100% Eddington) or inefficient (<0.5% Eddington) accretion onto black holes ranging in mass from 10^7 – 10^9.5 solar masses.
M. Keenan, E. Meyer, M. Georganopoulos, et. al.
Mon, 27 Jul 20
-571/60
Comments: Submitted to MNRAS. Manuscript is 18 pages, 11 figures (with 7 supplemental online figures in Appendix)
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