Radio-loud Ones Research Articles

The X-Ray Coronae in NuSTAR Bright Active Galactic Nuclei

We present a systematic and uniform analysis of NuSTAR data of a sample of 60 SWIFT BAT-selected AGNs with 10–78 keV signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) > 50, 10 of which are radio loud. We measure their high-energy cutoff E cut or coronal temperature T e using three different spectral models to fit their NuSTAR spectra and show that a threshold in NuSTAR spectral S/N is essential for such measurements. High-energy spectral breaks are detected in the majority of the sample, and for the rest, strong constraints on E cut or T e are obtained. Strikingly, we find extraordinarily large E cut lower limits (>400 keV, up to >800 keV) in 10 radio-quiet sources, whereas we find none in the radio-loud sample. Consequently and surprisingly, we find a significantly larger mean E cut/T e of radio-quiet sources compared with radio-loud ones. The reliability of these measurements is carefully inspected and verified with simulations. We find a strong positive correlation between E cut and photon index Γ, which cannot be attributed to the parameter degeneracy. The strong dependence of E cut on Γ, which could fully account for the discrepancy of the E cut distribution between radio-loud and radio-quiet sources, indicates that the X-ray coronae in AGNs with steeper hard X-ray spectra have on average higher temperature and thus smaller opacity. However, no prominent correlation is found between E cut and λ edd. In the l–Θ diagram, we find a considerable fraction of sources lie beyond the boundaries of forbidden regions due to runaway pair production, posing (stronger) challenges to various (flat) coronal geometries.

How are gamma-ray burst radio afterglows populated?

ABSTRACT We systematically analyse two GRB samples with radio-loud and radio-quiet afterglows, respectively. It is interestingly found that the radio-selected GRB samples exhibit a clear dichotomy in terms of their distributions of intrinsic durations (Tint), isotropic energies in γ-rays (Eγ, iso), the circum-burst medium density (n), the spectral radio peak luminosity (Lν, p) and flux densities (Fhost) of host galaxies. On average, the values of Tint, Eγ, iso, n, Lν, p, and Fhost of radio-quiet GRBs are relatively smaller than those of radio-loud ones. However, the redshifts and host flux densities of both samples are similarly distributed. In addition, a positive power-law correlation of $L_{\nu ,p}\propto E_{\gamma ,\rm iso}^{0.41\pm 0.04}$ is found for the radio-loud sample, especially in accord with the supernova-associated GRBs, which is marginally consistent with that of the radio-quiet GRB sample. A negative correlation between Tint and z is confirmed to similarly hold for both radio-loud and radio-quiet GRBs. The dividing line between short and long GRBs in the rest frame is at Tint ≃1 s. Consequently, we propose that the radio-selected GRBs could be originated from distinct progenitors and central engines, together with environments.

Radio loudness and classification for radio sources

Abstract The extragalactic radio sources are divided into two subclasses (radio-loud and radio-quiet sources) in the literature using radio loudness (R), which is defined as the ratio of radio emission to optical emission, but the boundary R-value separating the two classes is different in various sources. In this work, a sample of 2419 objects from the 13th catalog of quasars and active nuclei is used to build a boundary for the two subclasses. To do so, we compiled the radio and optical data, calculated their radio and optical indexes, made K-correction, obtained the radio loudness, and adopted a Bayesian analysis method to the logarithm of radio loudness for classification. We also investigated the correlations of radio loudness with radio/optical luminosities. Our main conclusions are summarized as follows: (1) The distribution of the logarithm of radio loudness (log R) is bimodal, the sources with log R < 1.26 are classified as radio-quiet sources, and those with log R > 1.26 are classified as radio-loud ones from the Bayesian analysis method. (2) The average radio-optical effective spectral index of radio-quiet sources is 〈αRO〉 = 0.05, while that of radio-loud sources is 〈αRO〉 = 0.55. (3) There are positive correlations between radio luminosity and radio loudness for both radio-loud sources and radio-quiet sources. (4) A dividing line of separating the distribution of the clusters on the diagram of radio loudness against radio luminosity was obtained statistically to set the boundary between radio-loud sources and radio-quiet sources, with an accuracy of $99.73\%$ based on the classification result from the Bayesian analysis method.

NuSTAR Hard X-Ray Spectra of Radio Galaxies

Abstract The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) observatory, with its 3–78 keV broadband spectral coverage, enables the detection of the high-energy cutoff in a number of active galaxies, including several individual radio-loud ones. In this work, we present systematic and uniform analyses of 55 Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) spectra for a large sample of 28 radio galaxies, 20 of which are FR II galaxies. We perform spectral fitting to measure the high-energy cutoff E cut, photon index Γ, reflection factor R, and Fe Kα line equivalent width (EW). Measurements of E cut are given for 13 sources, and lower limits are given for the rest. We find that those E cut nondetections could primarily be attributed to the obviously smaller net photon counts in their spectra. This indicates that the NuSTAR spectra of the majority of our sample are dominated by the thermal coronal emission, and the E cut distribution of the sample is indistinguishable from that of a radio-quiet one in the literature. The flatter NuSTAR spectra we observed, comparing with radio-quiet sources, are thus unlikely due to jet contamination. The radio galaxies also show weaker X-ray reflection (both in R and Fe Kα line EW) compared with radio-quiet ones. Combining with the radio-quiet sample, we see a correlation between R and EW but with considerably large scatter. Notably, the radio-loud and -quiet sources appear to follow a common Γ–R correlation trend, supporting the outflowing corona model for both populations in which higher bulk outflowing velocity yields weaker reflection and flatter X-ray slope.

Revisiting the Fraction of Radio-Loud Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies with LoTSS DR1

Radio-Loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s), especially the extremely radio-loud ones, are widely accepted as the jetted versions of NLS1s. We explore the radio-loud fraction for NLS1s with recently released LoTSS DR1 at 150 MHz. The radio detection rate is about 28% for LoTSS DR1. The radio detected NLS1s have lower redshift than the non-detected ones. Moreover, the 150 MHz radio luminosities of NLS1s detected by LoTSS are about two orders of magnitude weaker than those of the previous samples. By defining the radio loudness with the ratio between 150 MHz radio flux and SDSS r band flux, the radio-loud fraction is about 1% with the critical radio loudness equalling 100. Radio loudness shows no dependence on central black hole mass, while weak correlations are found between radio loudness and disk luminosity, as well as Eddington ratio.

Radio-faint AGN: a tale of two populations

We study the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (E-CDFS) Very Large Array sample, which reaches a flux density limit at 1.4 GHz of 32.5 microJy at the field centre and redshift ~ 4, and covers ~ 0.3 deg^2. Number counts are presented for the whole sample while the evolutionary properties and luminosity functions are derived for active galactic nuclei (AGN). The faint radio sky contains two totally distinct AGN populations, characterised by very different evolutions, luminosity functions, and Eddington ratios: radio-quiet (RQ)/radiative-mode, and radio-loud/jet-mode AGN. The radio power of RQ AGN evolves ~ (1+z)^2.5, similarly to star-forming galaxies, while the number density of radio-loud ones has a peak at ~ 0.5 and then declines at higher redshifts. The number density of radio-selected RQ AGN is consistent with that of X-ray selected AGN, which shows that we are sampling the same population. The unbiased fraction of radiative-mode RL AGN, derived from our own and previously published data, is a strong function of radio power, decreasing from ~ 0.5 at P_1.4GHz ~ 10^24 W/Hz to ~ 0.04$ at P_1.4GHz ~ 10^22 W/Hz. Thanks to our enlarged sample, which now includes ~ 700 radio sources, we also confirm and strengthen our previous results on the source population of the faint radio sky: star-forming galaxies start to dominate the radio sky only below ~ 0.1 mJy, which is also where radio-quiet AGN overtake radio-loud ones.

RADIO-QUIET AND RADIO-LOUD PULSARS: SIMILAR IN GAMMA-RAYS BUT DIFFERENT IN X-RAYS

We present new Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of a sample of eight radio-quiet Gamma-ray pulsars detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. For all eight pulsars we identify the X-ray counterpart, based on the X-ray source localization and the best position obtained from Gamma-ray pulsar timing. For PSR J2030+4415 we found evidence for an about 10 arcsec-long pulsar wind nebula. Our new results consolidate the work from Marelli et al. 2011 and confirm that, on average, the Gamma-ray--to--X-ray flux ratios (Fgamma/Fx) of radio-quiet pulsars are higher than for the radio-loud ones. Furthermore, while the Fgamma/Fx distribution features a single peak for the radio-quiet pulsars, the distribution is more dispersed for the radio-loud ones, possibly showing two peaks. We discuss possible implications of these different distributions based on current models for pulsar X-ray emission.

The sub-mJy radio sky in the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South: source population

The sub-mJy radio population is a mixture of active systems, that is star-forming galaxies (SFGs) and active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We study a sample of 883 radio sources detected at 1.4 GHz in a deep Very Large Array survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South that reaches a best rms sensitivity of 6 μJy. We have used a simple scheme to disentangle SFGs, radio-quiet (RQ), and radio-loud (RL) AGNs based on the combination of radio data with Chandra X-ray data and mid-infrared observations from Spitzer. We find that at flux densities between about 30 and 100 μJy, the radio population is dominated by SFGs (∼60 per cent) and that RQ AGNs become increasingly important over RL ones below 100 μJy. We also compare the host galaxy properties of the three classes in terms of morphology, optical colours and stellar masses. Our results show that both SFG and RQ AGN host galaxies have blue colours and late-type morphology while RL AGNs tend to be hosted by massive red galaxies with early-type morphology. This supports the hypothesis that radio emission in SFGs and RQ AGNs mainly comes from the same physical process: star formation in the host galaxy.

THE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN OPTICAL VARIABILITY AND PHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF QUASARS IN SDSS STRIPE 82

We investigate the optical variability of 7658 quasars from SDSS Stripe 82. Taking advantage of a larger sample and relatively more data points for each quasar, we estimate variability amplitudes and divide the sample into small bins of redshift, rest-frame wavelength, black hole mass, Eddington ratio and bolometric luminosity respectively, to investigate the relationships between variability and these parameters. An anti-correlation between variability and rest-frame wavelength is found. The variability amplitude of radio-quiet quasars shows almost no cosmological evolution, but that of radio-loud ones may weakly anti-correlate with redshift. In addition, variability increases as either luminosity or Eddington ratio decreases. However, the relationship between variability and black hole mass is uncertain; it is negative when the influence of Eddington ratio is excluded, but positive when the influence of luminosity is excluded. The intrinsic distribution of variability amplitudes for radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars are different. Both radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars exhibit a bluer-when-brighter chromatism. Assuming that quasar variability is caused by variations of accretion rate, the Shakura-Sunyaev disk model can reproduce the tendencies of observed correlations between variability and rest-frame wavelength, luminosity as well as Eddington ratio, supporting that changes of accretion rate plays an important role in producing the observed optical variability. However, the predicted positive correlation between variability and black hole mass seems to be inconsistent with the observed negative correlation between them in small bins of Eddington ratio, which suggests that other physical mechanisms may still need to be considered in modifying the simple accretion disk model.

The correlations between optical variability and physical parameters of quasars in SDSS Stripe 82

AbstractWe investigate the optical variability of 7658 quasars from SDSS Stripe 82. Taking advantage of a larger sample and relatively more data points for each quasar, we estimate variability amplitudes and divide the sample into small bins of redshift, rest-frame wavelength, black hole mass, Eddington ratio, and bolometric luminosity, respectively, to investigate the relationships between variability and these parameters. An anti-correlation between variability and rest-frame wavelength is found. The variability amplitude of radio-quiet quasars shows almost no cosmological evolution, but that of radio-loud ones may weakly anti-correlate with redshift. In addition, variability increases as either luminosity or Eddington ratio decreases. However, the relationship between variability and black hole mass is uncertain; it is negative when the influence of Eddington ratio is excluded, but positive when the influence of luminosity is excluded. The intrinsic distribution of variability amplitudes for radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars are different. Both radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars exhibit a bluer-when-brighter chromatism. Assuming that quasar variability is caused by variations of accretion rate, the Shakura–Sunyaev disk model can reproduce the tendencies of observed correlations between variability and rest-frame wavelength, luminosity as well as Eddington ratio, supporting that changes of accretion rate play an important role in producing the observed optical variability. However, the predicted positive correlation between variability and black hole mass seems to be inconsistent with the observed negative correlation between them in small bins of Eddington ratio, which suggests that other physical mechanisms may still need to be considered in modifying the simple accretion disk model.

VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY IMAGING OF PARSEC-SCALE JET STRUCTURES IN RADIO-LOUD NARROW-LINE SEYFERT 1 GALAXIES

We conducted very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of five radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies in milliarcsecond resolutions at 1.7 GHz (18 cm) using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). Significant parsec-scale structures were revealed for three out of the five sources with high brightness temperature by direct imaging; this is convincing evidence for nonthermal jets. FBQS J1644+2619 with an inverted spectrum showed a prominent one-sided linear structure, indicating Doppler beaming with an intrinsic jet speed of >0.74c. FBQS J1629+4007, also with an inverted spectrum, showed rapid flux variability, indicating Doppler beaming with an intrinsic jet speed of >0.88c. Thus, we found convincing evidence that these two NLS1s can generate at least mildly or highly relativistic jets, which may make them apparently radio loud even if they are intrinsically radio quiet. On the other hand, the other three NLS1s had steep spectra and two of them showed significantly diffuse pc-scale structures, which were unlikely to be strongly beamed. Thus, some NLS1s have the ability to generate jets strong enough to make them intrinsically radio loud without Doppler beaming. NLS1s as a class show a number of extreme properties and radio-loud ones are very rare. We build on these radio results to understand that the central engines of radio-loud NLS1s are essentially the same as that of other radio-loud AGNs in terms of the formation of nonthermal jets.

A MULTIWAVELENGTH STUDY ON THE HIGH-ENERGY BEHAVIOR OF THEFERMI/LAT PULSARS

Using archival as well as freshly acquired data, we assess the X-ray behaviour of the Fermi/LAT gamma-ray pulsars listed in the First Fermi source catalog. After revisiting the relationships between the pulsars' rotational energy losses and their X and gamma-ray luminosities, we focus on the distance-indipendent gamma to X-ray flux ratios. When plotting our Fgamma/Fx values as a function of the pulsars' rotational energy losses, one immediately sees that pulsars with similar energetics have Fgamma/Fx spanning 3 decades. Such spread, most probably stemming from vastly different geometrical configurations of the X and gamma-ray emitting regions, defies any straightforward interpretation of the plot. Indeed, while energetic pulsars do have low Fgamma/Fx values, little can be said for the bulk of the Fermi neutron stars. Dividing our pulsar sample into radio-loud and radio-quiet subsamples, we find that, on average, radio-quiet pulsars do have higher values of Fgamma/Fx, implying an intrinsec faintness of their X-ray emission and/or a different geometrical configuration. Moreover, despite the large spread mentioned above, statistical tests show a lower scatter in the radio-quiet dataset with respect to the radio-loud one, pointing to a somewhat more constrained geometry for the radio-quiet objects with respect to the radio-loud ones.

The Black Hole Fundamental Plane: Revisited with a Larger Sample of Radio and X‐Ray–Emitting Broad‐Line AGNs

We use a recently released SDSS catalog of X-ray-emitting AGNs in conjunction with the FIRST radio survey to investigate the black hole (BH) fundamental plane relationship between the 1.4 GHz radio luminosity ( -->Lr), 0.1-2.4 keV X-ray luminosity ( -->LX), and black hole mass ( -->M), namely, -->log Lr = ξRXlog LX + ξRMlog M + constant . For this purpose, we compile a large sample of 725 broad-line AGNs, which consists of 498 radio-loud sources and 227 radio-quiet sources. We confirm that radio-loud objects have a steeper slope ( -->ξRX) with respect to radio-quiet objects and that the dependence of the BH fundamental plane on the BH mass ( -->ξRM) is weak. We also find tight correlation with a similar slope between the soft X-ray luminosity and broad emission-line luminosity for both radio-loud and radio-quiet AGNs, which implies that their soft X-ray emission is unbeamed and probably related to the accretion process. With the current larger sample, we find that there is no clear evidence of evolution for radio-quiet AGNs, while for radio-loud ones there is a weak trend in which -->ξRM decreases as the redshift increases. This may be understood in part as due to the observed evolution of the radio spectral index as a function of redshift. Finally, we discuss the relativistic beaming effect and other uncertainties related to the BH fundamental plane. We conclude that, although it does introduce scatter into the fundamental plane relation, Doppler boosting alone is not enough to explain the observed steeper value of -->ξRX in the radio-loud subsample with respect to the radio-quiet ones.

Evidence for a large undetected population of dust-reddened quasars

QUASARS have been detected at many wavelengths, but often ones that are bright at one wavelength are very faint or undetectable at other wavelengths. It has therefore been impossible to design a single search technique that would identify all quasars, raising the question of how many may have gone unidentified. Here we show that quasars selected from a radio catalogue have a wide range of optical colours, which we interpret as arising from varying amounts of dust along the line of sight. Most of this dust probably lies within the quasar host galaxy. If the radio-quiet quasars that would normally be detected optically contain as much dust as the radio-loud ones (and have gone undetected at other wavelengths), then 80% of them have been missed by optical surveys. These missing quasars could adequately account for the observed X-ray background.

Soft X-ray Emission of Quasars

From a list of known quasars compiled from various catalogues we selected all sources detected by the PSPC (0.1 – 2.4 keV) aboard ROSAT with more than 80 counts during the all sky survey. A sample of 102 sources resulted. At higher redshifts most of the selected sources are radio-loud. At a redshift smaller than 0.50 we found 54 radio-quiet quasars and 30 radio-loud sources. For this reduced sample the mean spectral index of the radio-quiet sources (< Γ > = 2.53) and that of the radio-loud ones (< Γ > = 2.26) are clearly different with a significance of 3.3 σ.About 2/3 of the bright quasars observed with Einstein also belong to our sample. The spectra observed with ROSAT are sytematically steeper than the ones observed with Einstein yielding a < ΓROSAT – ΓEinstein > of 0.66 ± 0.18 for radio quiet and of 0.68 ± 0.19 for radio-loud sources, respectively.For radio loud quasars, the mean spectral slope decreases from 2.3 to 1.5 when the redshift increases beyond 0.5 (figure 1). The fact that high redshift sources show a photon index of about 1.5, which is similar to the mean index observed with Einstein for radio-loud sources, suggests that this decrease towards higher redshifts can be interpreted by the shift of the soft X-ray excess outside of the ROSAT spectral band when the redshift increases. The solid lines in figure 1 represent theoretical pathes of the photon index as a function of the redshift as derived from simulations assuming a power law plus black body model spectrum for the quasars X-ray emission. In curve No 1 the powerlaw index is fixed to 1.4. To be compatible with the observation the temperature of the blackbody component must range between 50 and 70 eV. Curve No 2 asssumes the same model with a powerlaw index fixed to 1.8 to account for radio quiet sources.

Stellar Mass Loss in Elliptical Galaxies and the Fueling of Active Galactic Nuclei

The connection between some observational properties of active galactic nuclei and their host galaxies is studied using a self-consistent model of galactic evolution which reproduces the main features of elliptical galaxies. It is shown that stellar mass loss, calculated in detail from a mixture of stellar generations, can explain the bolometric luminosities and active nucleus-to-host galaxy luminosity ratios of local quasars residing in ellipticals (i.e., the radio-loud ones), under the hypothesis that the power supply is primarily gravitational. The time dependence of the mass-loss rate, however, seems to be too weak to explain quasar evolution as inferred from observations

Profiles of emission lines in AGN – II. Analysis of a sample of [O III] profiles

Statistical analysis of a sample of active galactic nuclei (AGN) [O III]λ5007 high-resolution (FWHMS ≲ 130 km s−1) line profiles, complemented with other observational information, showed that line kurtosis correlates with narrow-line Balmer decrement, indicating that there is dust inside the narrow-line region. The dust affects preferentially the low-velocity emitting regions. Line kurtosis depends also on radio luminosity and presence of a broad-line region. The analysis shows a correlation between line FWHM and host galaxy inclination, pointing to the planar and aligned nature of the narrow-line region velocity field. Radio-quiet objects showed a good correlation between line FWHM and optical/radio luminosity. No correlation was found on the radio-loud ones, indicating that probably different mechanisms are at play in these two classes of objects. Late-type spirals showed, on the mean, lines with narrower FWHM than early-type ones. The effect is measurable, however, only on the low-velocity emitting regions, indicating that the velocity field in these regions may be shaped by the galaxy-bulge gravitational field. Line asymmetry does not appear to be a good diagnostic tool for probing the velocity field. About 23 per cent of the radio-quiet objects showed lines with red asymmetry.