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Evidence for a common central-engine mechanism in all extragalactic radio sources

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Abstract

EXTRAGALACTIC radio sources produce radio waves and narrow emission lines by very different physical processes: synchrotron radio emission arises from lobes filled with magnetized plasma extending over scales of kiloparsecs to megaparsecs, fed by the total kinetic power, Q, of jets driven by a central engine, whereas narrow-line luminosity LNLR arises from gas, typically concentrated in the inner few kiloparsecs, that has been photoionized by a nuclear source. We report here the discovery of a close relationship between Qand LNLR—an approximate proportionality which extends over four orders of magnitude from low-Q radio sources with relaxed structures to high-Q, radio-luminous classical double-lobe radio galaxies. Objects with broad Balmer lines follow the same trend as those without, showing that quasar-like photoion-izing sources are ubiquitous but not always obvious. Moreover, all radio-source central engines channel at least as much power into the jets as is radiated by accretion: this high efficiency implies that the engine is a massive spinning black hole which both powers the jets and controls the accretion rate.

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  1. Milliard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cavendish Laboratory, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 OHE, UK

    Steve Rawlings & Richard Saunders

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  1. Steve Rawlings
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Rawlings, S., Saunders, R. Evidence for a common central-engine mechanism in all extragalactic radio sources. Nature 349, 138–140 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/349138a0

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