Abstract
One of the great puzzles in the study of active galaxies is the relationship between the properties of the nucleus and the large-scale morphology of the host galaxy. Galaxies which produce extended radio sources but little optical, ultraviolet or X-ray emission are invariably giant ellipticals or cD galaxies, whereas spirals tend to host ‘optically active’ nuclei, such as Seyferts1 and at least some quasars2,3. Rees and co-workers4–6 have interpreted this difference in radiative efficiency as a manifestation of the accretion flow close to the central black hole. But why should the mode of accretion at several Schwarzschild radii depend on the large-scale morphology of the host galaxy? I argue here that the connection arises from the manner in which interstellar gas is fed into the nucleus.
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Begelman, M. Cooling flows in ellipticals and the nature of radio galaxies. Nature 322, 614–615 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/322614a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/322614a0
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