MAD accretion and AGN jets -- an observational perspective

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Savolainen, Tuomas, Chamani, Wara
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Savolainen, Tuomas
Chamani, Wara
author_facet Savolainen, Tuomas
Chamani, Wara
contents One of the major open questions related to the production of jets by accreting black holes is: why do sources with similar accretion powers produce so vastly different jet powers? What conditions are required to make a powerful jet? If jets are powered by the Blandford-Zjanek mechanism, two further parameters control the jet power besides the black hole mass - black hole spin and the magnetic flux threading it. Since highly spinning black holes without jets appear to exist, the jet production efficiency may depend on whether the black hole managed to accrete high enough magnetic flux in the past. The highest-efficiency jets in this picture are launched from magnetically arrested disks (MADs). Here we discuss a method to test this hypothesis using VLBI core-shift measurements to estimate the jet magnetic flux.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_06602
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle MAD accretion and AGN jets -- an observational perspective
Savolainen, Tuomas
Chamani, Wara
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
One of the major open questions related to the production of jets by accreting black holes is: why do sources with similar accretion powers produce so vastly different jet powers? What conditions are required to make a powerful jet? If jets are powered by the Blandford-Zjanek mechanism, two further parameters control the jet power besides the black hole mass - black hole spin and the magnetic flux threading it. Since highly spinning black holes without jets appear to exist, the jet production efficiency may depend on whether the black hole managed to accrete high enough magnetic flux in the past. The highest-efficiency jets in this picture are launched from magnetically arrested disks (MADs). Here we discuss a method to test this hypothesis using VLBI core-shift measurements to estimate the jet magnetic flux.
title MAD accretion and AGN jets -- an observational perspective
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06602