The Energetics of Launching the Most Powerful Jets in Quasars: A Study of 3C 82

Abstract

Abstract 3C 82 at a redshift of 2.87 is the most distant 3C (Third Cambridge Catalogue) quasar. Thus, it is a strong candidate to have the most-luminous radio lobes in the universe. 3C 82 belongs to the class of compact steep-spectrum radio sources. We use single-dish and interferometric radio observations in order to model the plasma state of these powerful radio lobes. It is estimated that the long-term time-averaged jet power required to fill these lobes with leptonic plasma is , among the largest time-averaged jet powers from a quasar. Positing protonic lobes is not tenable as they would require two orders of magnitude more mass transport to the lobes than was accreted to the central black hole during their formation. The first high signal-to-noise optical spectroscopic observation obtained of this object indicates that there is a powerful high-ionization broad-line wind with a kinetic power of ∼1045 erg s−1 and a velocity of ∼0.01c. We also estimate from the broad lines in 2018 and the UV continuum in three epochs spread out over three decades that the accretion flow bolometric luminosity is L bol ≈ 3.2–5.8 × 1046 erg s−1. The ratio of is perhaps the largest of any known quasar. Extremely powerful jets tend to strongly suppress powerful winds of ionized baryonic matter. Consequently, 3C 82 provides a unique laboratory for studying the dynamical limits of the central engine of outflow initiation in quasars.