Duty-cycle and energetics of remnant radio-loud AGN

作者:Turner Ross J*
来源:Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2018, 476(2): 2522-2529.
DOI:10.1093/mnras/sty433

摘要

Deriving the energetics of remnant and restarted active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is much more challenging than for active sources due to the complexity in accurately determining the time since the nucleus switched-off. I resolve this problem using a new approach that combines spectral ageing and dynamical models to tightly constrain the energetics and duty-cycles of dying sources. Fitting the shape of the integrated radio spectrum yields the fraction of the source age the nucleus is active; this, in addition to the flux density, source size, axis ratio, and properties of the host environment, provides a constraint on dynamical models describing the remnant radio source. This technique is used to derive the intrinsic properties of the well- studied remnant radio source B2 0924+30. This object is found to spend 50(-12)(+14) Myr in the active phase and a further 28(-5)(+6) Myr in the quiescent phase, have a jet kinetic power of 3.6(-1.7)(+3.0) x 10(37) W, and a lobe magnetic field strength below equipartition at the 8 sigma level. The integrated spectra of restarted and intermittent radio sources are found to yield a 'steep-shallow' shape when the previous outburst occurred within 100 Myr. The duty-cycle of B2 0924+30 is hence constrained to be delta < 0.15 by fitting the shortest time to the previous comparable outburst that does not appreciably modify the remnant spectrum. The time-averaged feedback energy imparted byAGNs into their host galaxy environments can in this manner be quantified.

  • 出版日期2018-5
  • 单位CSIRO