Ruling Out Compact Jets as the Dominant Source of Radio Emission in Radio-quiet, High Eddington-ratio Active Galactic Nuclei
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866908756962443264 |
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| author | Paul, Jeremiah D. Plotkin, Richard M. |
| author_facet | Paul, Jeremiah D. Plotkin, Richard M. |
| contents | The origin of core radio emission in radio-quiet active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is still actively debated. General relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations often predict the launching of moderately large-scale jets from super-Eddington accretion flows, but this prediction seems at odds with observations indicating most high/super-Eddington AGNs appear radio quiet. Here, we use the ratio of radio to X-ray luminosities as a multiwavelength diagnostic to probe the origin of radio emission in a sample of 69 radio-quiet, high/super-Eddington AGNs with black-hole masses $M_{\rm BH} \sim 10^{5}-10^{9}~M_\odot$. With this wide dynamic range in $M_{\rm BH}$, we adapt existing formalisms for how jetted radio emission and accretion-powered X-ray emission scale with black hole mass into the super-Eddington regime. We find that the radio/X-ray luminosity ratios observed across this $M_{\rm BH}$ range are inconsistent with a jet-dominated model for radio emission. We discuss how our results may instead be consistent with a corona-dominated radio emission origin with a contribution from outflows at higher accretion rates. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_06480 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Ruling Out Compact Jets as the Dominant Source of Radio Emission in Radio-quiet, High Eddington-ratio Active Galactic Nuclei Paul, Jeremiah D. Plotkin, Richard M. High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Astrophysics of Galaxies The origin of core radio emission in radio-quiet active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is still actively debated. General relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations often predict the launching of moderately large-scale jets from super-Eddington accretion flows, but this prediction seems at odds with observations indicating most high/super-Eddington AGNs appear radio quiet. Here, we use the ratio of radio to X-ray luminosities as a multiwavelength diagnostic to probe the origin of radio emission in a sample of 69 radio-quiet, high/super-Eddington AGNs with black-hole masses $M_{\rm BH} \sim 10^{5}-10^{9}~M_\odot$. With this wide dynamic range in $M_{\rm BH}$, we adapt existing formalisms for how jetted radio emission and accretion-powered X-ray emission scale with black hole mass into the super-Eddington regime. We find that the radio/X-ray luminosity ratios observed across this $M_{\rm BH}$ range are inconsistent with a jet-dominated model for radio emission. We discuss how our results may instead be consistent with a corona-dominated radio emission origin with a contribution from outflows at higher accretion rates. |
| title | Ruling Out Compact Jets as the Dominant Source of Radio Emission in Radio-quiet, High Eddington-ratio Active Galactic Nuclei |
| topic | High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.06480 |