Relationship between the kinetic power and bolometric luminosity of jets: Limitation from black hole x-ray binaries, active galactic nuclei, and gamma-ray bursts

Abstract

The correlation between the kinetic power P jet and intrinsic bolometric luminosity L jet of jets may reveal the underlying jet physics in various black hole systems. Based on the recent work by Nemmen et al., we re-investigate this correlation with additional sources of black hole X-ray binaries (BXBs) in hard/quiescent states and low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs). The new sample includes 29 sets of data from 7 BXBs and 20 LLAGNs, with P jet and L jet being derived from spectral modeling of the quasi-simultaneous multi-band spectra under the accretion jet scenario. Compared to previous works, the range of luminosity is now enlarged to more than 20 decades, i.e., from ∼1031 erg s -1 to ∼1052 erg s-1, which allows for better constraining of the correlation. One notable result is that the jets in BXBs and LLAGNs almost follow the same P jet-Ljet correlation that was obtained from blazars and gamma-ray bursts. The slope indices we derived are 1.03 ± 0.01 for the whole sample, 0.85 ± 0.06 for the BXB subsample, 0.71 ± 0.11 for the LLAGN subsample, and 1.01 ± 0.05 for the LLAGN-blazar subsample, respectively. The correlation index around unit implies the independence of jet efficiency on the luminosity or kinetic power. Our results may further support the hypothesis that similar physical processes exist in the jets of various black hole systems. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.