Low Radiative Efficiency Accretion in The Nuclei of Elliptical Galaxies

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.
000, 000000 (0000)
Printed February 1, 2008
(MN LATEX style file v1.4)
Low radiative efficiency accretion in the nuclei of elliptical

galaxies
T.Di Matteo1, E.Quataert1, S.W.Allen2, R.Narayan1 and A.C.Fabian2
arXiv:astro-ph/9905053v1 6 May 1999
1. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138

2. Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OHA
February 1, 2008
ABSTRACT
The discovery of hard, power-law X-ray emission (Paper I) from a sample of six nearby
elliptical galaxies, including the dominant galaxies of the Virgo, Fornax and Centaurus clusters (M87, NGC 1399 and NGC 4696, respectively), and NGC 4472, 4636 and
4649 in the Virgo cluster, has important implications for the study of quiescent supermassive black holes. We describe how the broad band spectral energy distributions of
these galaxies, which accrete from their hot gaseous halos at rates comparable to their
Bondi rates, can be explained by low-radiative efficiency accretion flows in which a significant fraction of the mass, angular momentum and energy is removed from the flows
by winds. The observed suppression of the synchrotron component in the radio band
(excluding the case of M87) and the systematically hard X-ray spectra, which are interpreted as thermal bremsstrahlung emission, support the conjecture that significant
mass outflow is a natural consequence of systems accreting at low-radiative efficiencies.
We briefly discuss an alternative model for the observed X-ray emission, namely that
it is due to nonthermal synchrotron-self Compton processes in the accretion flow, or
wind. This appears to require implausibly weak magnetic fields. Emission from a collimated jet viewed off axis should be distinguishable from the bremsstrahlung model by
variability and thermal line emission studies. We argue that the difference in radiative
efficiency between the nuclei of spiral and elliptical galaxies arises from the different
manner in which interstellar gas is fed into the nuclei. In ellipticals, matter fed from
the hot (slowly cooling) ISM is likely to be highly magnetized and with low specific
angular momentum, both of which favor low-radiative efficiency accretion solutions
and possibly the formation of the observed jets.
Key words: galaxies: individual: M87 NGC 1399 NGC 4696 NGC 4649
NGC 4472 NGC 4636, galaxies: active, accretion, accretion flows clusters: general
cooling flows intergalactic medium X-rays: galaxies
INTRODUCTION
The discovery of hard, power-law, X-ray emission associated

with supermassive black holes in the nuclei of six nearby elliptical galaxies (Allen, Di Matteo & Fabian 1999; hereafter
Paper I) has brought into sharper focus the issue of quiescent accretion and the potential ubiquity of low-level nuclear
activity in early-type galaxies.
The nuclei of elliptical galaxies provide excellent environments for studying the physics of low-luminosity accretion. There is strong evidence, from high-resolution optical
spectroscopy and photometry, that black holes with masses
of 108 1010 M reside at the centers of bulge dominated
Chandra Fellow
c 0000 RAS

galaxies, with the black hole mass being roughly proportional to the mass of the stellar component (e.g. Kormendy
& Richstone 1995, Magorrian et al. 1998; van der Marel
1998; Ho 1998).
X-ray studies of elliptical galaxies also show that they
possess extensive hot gaseous halos that fill their gravitational potentials. Given the very large inferred black hole
masses, this gas must inevitably be accreting at a rate which
can be estimated from Bondis (1952) spherical accretion
theory (but, see Gruzinov 1999). Such accretion should, however, give rise to far more nuclear activity (e.g. quasar-like
luminosities) than is observed if the radiative efficiency were
as high as 10 per cent (e.g. Fabian & Canizares 1988), as is
generally postulated in standard accretion theory.
Accretion with such high radiative efficiency need not
necessarily occur in nearby ellipticals, however. The scheme
Low radiative efficiency accretion in the nuclei of elliptical galaxies
proposed by Rees et al. (1982; see also Begelman 1986;

Fabian and Rees 1995) and successfully applied to a number
of giant ellipticals in the Virgo cluster (M87: Reynolds et al.
1996; NGC 4649: Di Matteo & Fabian 1997a; Mahadevan
1997; Di Matteo et al. 1999, hereafter DM99) suggests that
the final stages of accretion in elliptical galaxies may occur
via an advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF; Narayan
& Yi 1995b; Abramowicz et al. 1995; for recent review see
Narayan, Mahadevan & Quataert 1998). For such an accretion mode, the quiescence of the elliptical galaxy nuclei is
not surprising; when the accretion rate is low, the radiative
efficiency of the accreting (low density) material will also
be low. Other factors may also contribute to the low luminosities observed. As discussed theoretically by Blandford
& Begelman (1999; see also Narayan & Yi 1994; 1995a) and
given observational credence by DM99, winds/outflows may
transport energy, angular momentum and mass out of the
hot, radiatively inefficient accretion flows, resulting in only a
small fraction of the material supplied at large radii actually
accreting onto the central black hole.
In fact, the central aim of this paper is to argue that
the new X-ray (Paper I; and radio) constraints on nearby
ellipticals provide strong support that a different accretion
mode operates in these systems (as discussed also in Fabian
& Rees 1995); this work also emphasizes the importance of
mass loss in sub-Eddington, radiatively inefficient, accretion
flows.
We present detailed models for the broad-band emission
spectra of the same sample of six giant ellipticals studied in
Paper I: M87 (also known as NGC 4486, the central galaxy
of the Virgo Cluster), three other giant ellipticals in the
Virgo Cluster (NGC 4649, NGC 4472 and NGC 4636; previously studied at high radio and sub-millimeter frequencies
by DM99) and the central galaxies of the Fornax and Centaurus clusters (NGC 1399 and 4696, respectively). Hard
power-law X-ray emission was recently discovered in all of
these galaxies (Paper I). Most of the sources also show a
noticeable lack of high frequency radio emission (DM99).
Together with the absence of strong optical/UV flux (the
big blue bump), or corresponding infrared (IR) flux (Paper I) this identifies these objects as a new class of accreting
sources.
In Section 2, we will argue for low-radiative efficiency in
the target sources by calculating the Bondi accretion rates
and associated luminosities and showing that these latter
values are much greater than those observed. We indicate
also how radio and X-ray observations are crucial for constraining the properties of low radiative efficiency accretion.
In 3 and 4 we summarize the data and the model calculations with particular emphasis on the effects of outflows
on such models. Section 5 explicitly compares model predictions to the data and 6 provides some discussion of the
implications for our models within the context of elliptical nuclei. Other possible contributions to the emission are
briefly discussed in 7 and a prediction of the expected variability timescales is given in 8. We conclude and discuss
our understanding of accretion from the hot ISM in elliptical nuclei in 9.
2.1
CLUES FOR UNDERSTANDING LOW

RADIATIVE EFFICIENCY FLOWS
Black hole masses and accretion rates
The objects we consider are excellent examples of quiescent

black holes. The radio galaxy M87 (NGC 4486), which lies at
the center of the Virgo Cluster, has long been known to host
a (low-luminosity) active nucleus, which powers both a relativistic jet and giant radio lobes. Both M87 and NGC 1399,
the dominant galaxy of the Fornax Cluster, possess central, supermassive black holes with masses exceeding 109 M
(Ford et al. 1994, Harms et al. 1994, Macchetto et al. 1997,
Magorrian et al. 1998: see Table 1). Although no direct mass
measurement for the central black hole in NGC 4696 has
been made, this is the most luminous galaxy in our sample
and is therefore likely to have the largest black hole. Both
NGC 1399 and NGC 4696 also exhibit FR-I type radio activity.
The central cluster galaxies exist in highly gas-rich environments (i.e. in cooling flows at the centers of their host
clusters; the integrated mass deposition rates from the cooling flows in and around M87 and NGC 4696 are 40 50
M yr1 (Allen et al. in preparation). Although the other
three Virgo ellipticals included in our sample (NGC 4649,
NGC 4472 and NGC 4636) do not exist in such extreme
environments, they also have measured black hole masses
(Magorrian et al. 1998; also summarized in Table 1) and
posses hot, rich, (also slowly cooling) X-ray emitting interstellar media (ISM) to feed the accretion flow.
Hot gas in the cooling flow or the potential well of the
galaxy may be able to smoothly evolve into a hot, radiatively inefficient, accretion flow after it passes through the
Bondi accretion radius, defined to be the point where the
gravitational potential of the central black hole begins to
dominate the dynamics of the hot gas; the accretion radius
is given by RA (c/cs )2 RS , where c is the speed of light,
cs 104 T 1/2 cm s1 the sound speed (and T the gas temperature) and RS = 2GM/c2 the Schwarzschild radius of the
black hole. As long as the cooling time for the gas is longer
than the free fall time (i.e the ISM density is low enough),
the gas is able to stay hot as it passes through RA and the
accretion rate onto the black hole can be roughly calculated
using Bondis (1952) formula, which requires an estimate of
the density and temperature of the gas near RA .
We have carried out a deprojection analysis of ROSAT
High Resolution Imager (HRI) observations for our sample
of galaxies, with the primary aim of measuring the central
X-ray emitting gas densities in these systems. The results
(quoted at a fixed radius of 1 kpc) are summarized in Table 1. The inferred gas densities are relatively insensitive to
assumptions about the underlying gravitational potential in
the galaxies and host clusters and are typically characterized
by an R profile, where is measured to be 1 (Table 1).
The measured densities for the central cluster galaxies are,
as expected, slightly higher than for the Virgo ellipticals (see
also Fig. 3, Paper I).
In order to estimate the accretion rates, we extrapolate the observed density profiles from 1 kpc to RA using
the power-law models listed in Table 1. For the systems of
interest,
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Table 1. Black hole masses (Magorrian et al. 1998), ISM densities, Bondi rates and radiative efficiencies
RA 0.1
M
109 M

Object
Black Hole
(109 M )
ne (ISM)
(cm3 ) at 1 kpc
Bondi
M
M yr1
LBondi /LObs
M87
NGC 1399
NGC 4696
NGC 4649
NGC 4472
NGC 4636
3.0
5.2
3.9
2.6
0.22
0.24
0.16
0.40
0.12
0.10
0.08
1.02
1.37
0.93
1.17
1.27
1.34
1.5
3
1.4
0.7
0.3
105
2 106
105
3 105
105
3 104
cs
300kms1
2
kpc.
(1)
Thus, ROSAT observations at 1 kpc probe the gas structure reasonably close to RA .
If the influence of the point mass becomes significant at a temperature T (where the ISM density A =
(1 kpc)[1 kpc/RA ] ), the accretion rate is roughly given by
2
M = 4RA
A cs (RA )
(2)
For M87 this implies an accretion rate

M
26
42
10 [1 kpc] c
i23 h
cs
3.4 107
1 M yr1 .
ne (1 kpc)
0.24
RS
8.9 1014
i2
(3)
g s1
The temperature of the interstellar medium, T , is assumed

to be that determined from the ASCA analysis of the soft
X-ray emission (Table 3, Paper I) for the Virgo ellipticals.
The ASCA spectra for the central cluster galaxies include
a significant amount of emission from the extended cluster
gas; the measured temperatures are therefore more likely to
reflect the virial temperatures of the host clusters. Previous studies of M87 (e.g. Stewart et al. 1984), however, have
shown that most of the gravitating mass in the central regions is associated with the galaxy itself rather than the
Virgo cluster as a whole. For this reason, we assume a temperature kT 1 keV for the central cluster galaxies (and for
the deprojection analysis of the X-ray data in the innermost
regions). This should better approximate the virial temperature of the galaxy potential in the inner regions (T should
scale approximately with the square of the stellar velocity
dispersion; the optical velocity dispersions for M87 and NGC
1399 are similar to those of NGC 4472 and NGC 4649 - Van
der Marel 1991 - which have kT 1 keV; Paper I). The inferred Bondi accretion rates for NGC 4696 and NGC 1399
are of the same magnitude ( 1 M yr1 ) as for M87, with
slightly lower values for the Virgo ellipticals. Note that the
gas densities at RA , and the corresponding accretion rates,
suggest that the systems are accreting at close to their upper limits. If we balance the cooling time (assuming a power
The temperature profile in the inner regions is the major uncertainty and may differ significantly due to local cooling or heating
processes.
c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000

law approximation for the cooling rate; e.g. McKee & Cowie
1977) of the hot gas at R >
RA with the local free-fall time,
then, from the Bondi theory, the maximum accretion rate
< 3M9 T71.6 M yr1 , which is consistent with the asis M
sumption that gas will stay hot at R <

RA and given our
estimated accretion rates.
For the black hole masses determined for these galaxies (Table 1; Magorrian et al. 1998) accretion at the Bondi
rate with a radiative efficiency of = 0.1 (as assumed for
standard accretion) would yield a luminosity ( LBondi ) exceeding 1046 erg s1 for central cluster galaxies (see Table 1).
Observationally, the nuclei of these giant ellipticals are 4-6
orders of magnitude less active (see ratios of LBondi /LObs in
Table 1 and figures in Section 5). The observed luminosities
of their cores do not exceed 1042 erg s1 for centre cluster
galaxies and a few 1040 for the Virgo ellipticals (see also
DM99 and the IR limits from Paper I). This provides strong
observational evidence for low radiative efficiency accretion.
2.2
The spectrum of the accretion flow: testing

the physics of low radiative efficiency
accretion
In a low efficiency accretion flow around a supermassive

black hole, the majority of the observable emission is in
the radio and Xray bands. In the radio band the emission results from cyclosynchrotron emission due to the
near equipartition magnetic field in the inner parts of
the accretion flow. The X-ray emission is due either to
bremsstrahlung or inverse Compton scattering. The cleanest test for probing the structure of low radiative efficiency
accretion flows (i.e., ADAFs) is to examine the correlation
between the radio and X-ray emission.
The selfabsorbed synchrotron spectrum in an ADAF
slowly rises with frequency in the radio band, up to some
critical turnover frequency, typically in high radio to sub
mm frequencies, above which the emission should drop off
quickly. The peak emission always arises from close to the
black hole and reflects the properties of the accreting gas
within a few Schwarzschild radii. Its Comptonization, which
can dominate the X-ray emission, is also produced in the
very inner regions of the flow. Bremsstrahlung emission, on
the other hand, is typically produced at all radii in the flow.
The spectrum of a low efficiency accretion flow with
a strong wind can be characterized by a variable accretion
r p where p 1 (i.e. a large fraction
rate such that M
of the mass supplied is carried away by the wind at large
distances and only a small fraction is accreted). This implies a strong suppression of the synchrotron and Comptonized emission. However, relatively strong X-ray emission
via bremsstrahlung can still occur (e.g. DM99; Quataert &
Narayan 1999, hereafter QN99).
Assuming that the wind is spectrally unimportant (i.e.
non-radiating) the importance of mass loss can be readily
assessed by analyzing the correlation between the radio and
X-ray emission in elliptical galaxies. If no wind is present
and the accretion rate is of order the Bondi rate, the spectra
should exhibit prominent synchrotron emission in the radio
band and be dominated by Comptonization of this component in the X-ray band. Such systems would have relatively
soft X-ray spectra. If, on the other hand, a significant outflow is present, the X-ray luminosity should dominate the
radio luminosity and the X-ray spectrum should be very
hard, as expected from bremsstrahlung emission.
Previous work has emphasized the power of radio and
sub-mm observations of nearby ellipticals to test ADAF
models. Such observations allow both the synchrotron flux
and the position of the peak to be measured (DM99). In such
work it was found that the predicted radio emission, based
on the ADAF model (for magnetic fields in equipartition
with thermal pressure and accretion at the Bondi rate), exceeds the measured fluxes by 2-3 orders of magnitude. Models with strong mass loss (winds), which can easily accommodate the observed suppression of the synchrotron emission,
still predict a significant X-ray flux due to bremsstrahlung
emission from the outer regions of the flows (if the accretion rates in these systems are similar to the Bondi value).
The lack of any previous detection of nuclear X-ray emission
(DM99), however, left open the possibility that the accretion rates in these systems were simply much lower than the
Bondi value.
The discovery of hard power-law X-ray emission (Paper
I) in the Virgo ellipticals studied by DM99 at the level of
1040 erg s1 , and in three more central cluster galaxies with
luminosities of up to 1042 erg s1 , provides us with strong
motivation to further consider low-radiative efficiency accretion models and in particular the evidence for mass outflow
(note that throughout this paper we assume that the majority of the observed X-ray emission is from accretion onto the
central supermassive black holes in these objects; see Section
4 of Paper I for the justification of this interpretation).
THE SPECTRUM OF THE CORE EMISSION
In order to examine the nature of accretion in the present

sample of elliptical galaxies, we have compiled the best observational limits on the broad band spectra of their core
emission. Our aim is to obtain good observational limits on
the core flux over a wide range of frequencies rather than
to compile a comprehensive list of all previous observations.
Some contribution from the jets (particularly for the central
cluster galaxies) and from the underlying galaxy are unavoidable; in some sense, then, the derived spectra should
be considered as upper limits to the emission from the accretion flow.
The most up to date spectral energy distributions
(SEDs) for the three Virgo elliptical galaxies (NGC 4649,
NGC 4636 and NGC 4472) were compiled by DM99 (e.g see
Tables 4,5 and 6 in DM99). These include stringent limits

obtained at high radio and sub-millimeter frequencies with
the Very Large Array (VLA) and SCUBA, respectively. The
X-ray observations were upper limits obtained from ROSAT
HRI. Here they are replaced with the ASCA detected hard
power-law X-ray emission described in Paper I (the spectral
slopes and luminosities in the 1-10 keVband are listed in
Table 4 of that paper).
The spectral energy distribution for M87 (NGC4486)
was previously compiled by Reynolds et al. (1996). Again,
the X-ray observations have been updated to include the
new ASCA (1-10 keV) data (Paper I, Table 4). We summarize the SEDs for NGC 1399 and NGC 4696 in Tables 2
and 3 respectively. The data for NGC 1399 also include
new high radio frequency VLA data (consistent with a significant suppression of the high energy emission with respect
to the standard ADAF model; Di Matteo, Carilli & Fabian
in preparation). NGC 4696, the most luminous center cluster galaxy, is not as well constrained in the radio band and
lacks a black hole mass measurement. According to the relationship Mbh Mbulge (e.g., Kormendy & Richstone 1995;
Magorrian et al 1998; Ho 1998), however, it is expected to
possess the the most massive black hole in our sample. Indeed, ASCA observations of NGC 4696 (Paper I) identify it
as having the most luminous hard X-ray power-law emission.
3.1
Models
Accretion from the hot interstellar medium in elliptical

galaxies (which should have relatively low angular momentum) may proceed directly into a hot, advection-dominated,
regime.
When gas is supplied to a black hole at rates well below
the Eddington rate it may not be able to radiate efficiently.
In an advection dominated flow, which occurs at accretion
2
rates M <
M Edd , viscous stresses are assumed to dissipate most of the energy locally into the ions (a number
of investigations have been carried out to study magnetic
dissipation and particle heating in plasmas appropriate to
ADAFs; e.g. Bisnovatyi-Kogan & Lovelace 1997; Quataert
1998; Gruzinov 1998; Blackman 1999; Quataert & Gruzinov 1999). A small fraction of the ion thermal energy is
transferred to the electrons (which are responsible for the
radiation) by Coulomb collisions, at a rate M /M Edd 2 .
As a result of this poor thermal coupling (and the assumed
ion heating), the radiative efficiency of the flow can be much
less than the canonical disk value of 10%.
Narayan & Yi (1994,1995a) noted that ADAFs have the
interesting property that the Bernoulli parameter, a measure of the sum of the kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy, and enthalpy, is positive over much of the flow;
since, in the absence of viscosity, the Bernoulli parameter
is conserved on streamlines, the gas can, in principle, escape to infinity with positive energy. Narayan & Yi speculated that this might make ADAFs a natural candidate for
launching the outflows/jets seen to originate from a number
of accretion systems. The positivity of the Bernoulli parameter, Be > 0 arises because viscous stresses transport energy
and angular momentum from small radii to large radii in
the flow (cf Narayan & Yi 1995 or Blandford & Begelman
1999). Consequently, the positivity of Be, and the resultc 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000


ing unboundedness of the accreting gas, is likely a generic
feature of any hot, low radiative efficiency, accretion model.
Blandford & Begelman (1999) have recently suggested
that mass loss via winds in ADAFs may be both dynamically crucial and quite substantial. They constructed selfsimilar ADAF solutions in which the mass accretion rate in
the flow varies with radius R as M Rp (see also simulations by Stone et al. in preparation). If the wind carries away
roughly the specific angular momentum and energy appropriate to the radius from which it is launched, they show
that the remaining (accreting) gas has a negative Bernoulli
parameter only for large values of p 1. Essentially, Blandford & Begelman suggest that Be > 0 is unstable. Matter
will be lost to an outflow/wind in sufficient quantity to guarantee that the remaining matter is in fact bound, i.e., has
Be < 0. In their view, then, outflows are inevitably driven
by an accretion flow which cannot radiate. The outflow is
necessary to guarantee that the accreting matter is bound
to the central object. As we discuss in this paper, the radio
observations of DM99 and the X-ray observations of Paper
I provide support for this conjecture.
Numerical modeling techniques for ADAFs have advanced significantly during the last two years (see Narayan,
Barret & McClintock 1997 and Esin McClintock & Narayan
1998). The calculations presented in this paper use such
models and also include some modifications. One relevant
difference here is the assumption that the mass inflow rate
satisfies
out
M = M
R
Rout
p
for
R < Rout ,
(4)
as in previous models by DM99 and QN99 (M = M out for

R > Rout ). The quantity M out is the accretion rate at the
radius Rout where winds become important. Note that Rout
need not be the same as RA (the accretion radius), the radius
at which the accretion flow starts.
The most relevant difference in the code is an improved calculation of the bremsstrahlung emissivity. Following previous work (Di Matteo & Fabian 1997; DM99) we
now calculate the spectral emissivity using the expressions
for the electron-electron bremsstrahlung and electron-ion
bremsstrahlung computed by Stepney and Guilbert (1983).
For the evaluation of the electron-ion bremsstrahlung (the
dominant contribution), it is important to use the cross section in the Born approximation for a relativistic electron in a
Coulomb field given by Gould (1980). For electron-electron
bremsstrahlung process, the cross-section is much more complicated and we have used the numerically integrated expression given in Stepney and Guilbert (1983). The resulting
emissivity includes both contributions.
For convenience and consistency with previous work
we scale black hole masses in solar units, M = m M ,
and accretion rates in Eddington units, M = m
M Edd and
2
M Edd = Ledd /0.1c . We rescale the radial co-ordinate in

Schwarzschild units, R = rRS .
The ADAF model is specified by four parameters: , the
viscosity parameter, , the ratio of gas to magnetic pressure,
, the adiabatic index of the fluid, which is assumed to be
5/3, and , the fraction of the turbulent energy which heats
the electrons. The thermodynamic state of the flow is described by the ion temperature Ti 1012 r 1 K (which is
to a very good approximation the virial temperature), the
c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000

electron temperature, Te , and the magnetic pressure. The

electron temperature profile is obtained by solving the full
electron energy equation, including the electron entropy gradient (Nakamura et al. 1997; Esin et al. 1997; Narayan et al.
1998)
The microphysical parameters in ADAFs are quite uncertain; unless otherwise specified we take = 10, = 0.1
(in accordance with the viscosity parameter scaling roughly
as 1/, as expected if turbulent stresses arise solely
from magnetic fields; Hawley, Gammie & Balbus 1996), and
= 102 0.1 (as we shall show later the observational
constraints allow us to vary the fraction of electron heating
with no significant modification to any of the conclusions).
Excepting (which is discussed in 7), the particular values
assumed for these parameters are not important for any of
our qualitative conclusions. Variations in the predicted spectrum due to changes in the microphysical parameters have
been investigated by QN99.
The other model parameters are m, which is estimated
from observations (apart from NGC 4696), p, rout and m
out .
m
out is adjusted to reproduce the X-ray data. The predicted
spectrum depends primarily on the fraction of the incoming
mass accreted onto the central object, so that p and rout
are somewhat degenerate. They can, however, be decoupled
to some extent when one attempts to satisfy both the radio
and X-ray constraints.
SPECTRA OF ADAFS WITH WINDS
ADAF models with a variable accretion rate have been investigated by DM99 in the context of elliptical galaxy nuclei and in greater detail and generality by QN99. Here we
will briefly summarize how the different spectral features
are affected by the presence of outflows. In the magnetized,
optically thin plasma of an ADAF, with an electron temperature of 109 1010 K, the most important radiation processes are synchrotron emission, Compton scattering and
bremsstrahlung emission.
We will use the self-similar approximation to indicate
how the introduction of a radially varying m
(see Eqn. 1)
changes the predicted spectrum. As mentioned earlier, in
the thermal plasma of an ADAF, synchrotron emission rises
steeply with increasing frequency. Under most circumstances
the emission becomes selfabsorbed and gives rise to a
blackbody spectrum below a critical frequency, c . Above
this frequency it decays exponentially as expected from a
thermal plasma. The peak frequency scales as c BTe2
m1/2 m
1/2 Te2 r 5/4 and the luminosity (approximated by
the RayleighJeans limit) varies as (Mahadevan 1997)
c Lc c3 Te m2 r 2 3/2 Te7 m
3/2 .
(5)
Note that emission observed at higher frequencies originates

at smaller radii and that the total power is a very strong
function of temperature.
For all other model parameters fixed, the predicted synchrotron emission decreases strongly with the introduction
of a wind (i.e., with increasing p). There are two reasons for
this. First, increasing p decreases the magnetic field strength
near r 1, where the high frequency synchrotron emission
originates (this is because the density and the gas pressure
decrease as p increases). In addition, the electron temperature decreases as p increases. This is because adiabatic compression of the electrons is less efficient (when p is large,
the density profile is flatter, and hence Te is smaller). By
equation (5), the synchrotron emission is particularly sensitive to the electron temperature. Therefore, the synchrotron
emission falls very rapidly with increasing p.
The Compton power, i.e., the Compton scattering of
soft synchrotron photons by the hot electrons in the accreting gas, decreases with increasing p even more strongly than
the synchrotron does. The optical depth to electron scattering decreases with the introduction of a wind, as does the
electron temperature. In other words, the Compton-y parameter 16(kTe /me c2 ) is 1 in ADAFs with outflows.
In
contrast
to
the
processes discussed above, bremsstrahlung emission arises from
all radii in the flow. The emission at frequency is, however,
dominated by the largest radius which satisfies h kT (r).
The large radii dominate because, so long as h <
kT , the
bremsstrahlung luminosity from a spherical shell of radius
r and thickness dr r is r 3 2 T 1/2 r 2p T 1/2 which
is an increasing function of r (even for p = 0). Note that
the radial dependence of the emissivity depends on the density profile of the flow and therefore on the strength of the
wind. This is seen explicitly in Figure 1 which shows the
bremsstrahlung emissivity, (ergs s1 Hz1 ), as a function of r for 3 different X-ray energies (from top to bottom,
1, 10, 100 keV). The solid lines show a no-wind ADAF model
while the dotted lines show an ADAF model with p = 0.5
and rout = 103 (this model is favored by the observations
discussed in 5). Note that the soft X-ray emission is always
dominated by radii 103 104 RS since this is where kT
a few keV. Even in the absence of a wind, the hard X-ray
>
emission is dominated by radii >
100RS since kT 100 keV
2
3
< rout
for r <
10
10
.
In
the
presence
of
a
wind,
radii
contribute negligible to the bremsstrahlung emission.

As pointed out by QN99 (and explicitly shown in Figure 1), bremsstrahlung emission at 1 10 keV is rather insensitive to the presence of a wind since it originates from
the outer regions of the flow. X-ray observations in this
band can therefore directly measure the density at the outer
edge of the flow and provide a firm estimate of the rate at
which matter is fed to the accretion flow (i.e. m
out ). At energies around 10 keV and above, the bremsstrahlung emission
would decrease with increasing p if the outflow were to start
at rout 104 . The absence of a decrease in the thermal
bremsstrahlung emission at and above 10 keV (cf 5) therefore implies either that there is no wind or that the outflow
starts at radii 104 .
COMPARISON WITH THE DATA
Figure 2 shows the observational constraints on the spectra

of the six giant elliptical galaxies together with our model
predictions. A striking feature of the broad band spectral
energy distributions is the non-thermal character of the
emission. In particular, it is apparent that most of the luminosity is produced in the X-ray band (very hard energy
spectral slopes are observed ranging from x 0.4 to 0.3),
with roughly two orders of magnitude less luminosity coming out in the radio band. (The case of M87 is less drastic,
p=0
p = 0.5
20
19
18
Figure 1. The bremsstrahlung emissivity, (ergs s1 Hz1 ), as

a function of r for three different X-ray energies (from top to bottom, 1, 10, &100 keV). The solid lines show the bremsstrahlung
emission for a no-wind ADAF model while dotted ones show an
ADAF model with a wind characterized by p = 0.5 and rout = 103
(observationally favored parameters; see Section 5).
with the X-ray luminosity exceeding that in the radio band

by less than a factor 10. The results for NGC 4696 are also
more uncertain due to the lack of any high frequency radio
data). The SEDs are very different from those of standard
AGN, which are typically much flatter (in L ) with big
blue bumps in the optical/UV bands (generally interpreted
as thermal emission from a standard thin disk) and X-ray
emission with slopes of x 0.8 1.
In the following Sections, we present detailed models for
each of the galaxies in our sample. The results shown in the
figures, for various values of p, all have = 0.1, = 10 and
= 0.01 (or 0.1). The value of m
out is adjusted to fit the
observed ASCA X-ray flux at 1 keV. These measurements
are then compared to the predicted Bondi accretion rates
to check for consistency. In all of the models p is required
to be large enough to satisfy the stringent radio limits (for
NGC 1399, NGC 4649, NGC 4472 and NGC 4636). We shall
show that this also yields a bremsstrahlung dominated X-ray
spectrum (as required independently by the ASCA data).
We start by describing the spectral models for each object
and then discuss the general picture which arises from the
comparison with the data.
5.1
5.1.1
Central cluster galaxies

M87
Figure 2a shows the spectral models for M87 for different

values of p and rout . The high frequency radio data (unlike
in most of the other galaxies) is completely consistent with
a model with no wind, i.e. p = 0. In this case, however, the
c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000

X-ray emission is due to Comptonization of the synchrotron

photons. The predicted slope is too soft to be consistent with
the ASCA data (dashed line Fig. 2a). The accretion rate in
this case is m
=m
out 103 . This model also predicts an
optical flux (due to the first Compton bump) which exceeds
the HST limit: a further increase in m,
which seems to be
required by the X-ray data, would significantly violate this
limit.
The dotted line shows a model for rout = 104 and p =
0.37 (which has m
out = 0.025). Although this model has the
correct hard slope up to 5 7 keV, the effects of a wind
starting at r = 104 introduce a fairly strong suppression of
the X-ray emission above 5 keV (a spectral break in the
bremsstrahlung emission as described in 4). The best fit
model (solid line) shows the effects of reducing rout to 300
(with p = 0.45 and m
out = 0.015). In fact, good agreement
with the X-ray data is obtained for any rout <
1000. The
quoted values for rout should only be considered accurate to
order of magnitude, but values of 102 103 are preferred
for all systems we consider (see the comparison between the
solid, dotted and dashed lines in Fig. 2a).
In the models with winds, the 100 GHz VLBI data
might require an additional component; the synchrotron jet
or the wind itself could be candidates; note also that increasing (with a relative increase in p so that the X-ray
emission is still dominated by bremsstrahlung), e.g. , further electron heating in reconnection sites, would increase
the electron temperature and therefore the synchrotron flux
by a factor Te7 . This might produce the required radio
flux as well (see also Fig.2d for NGC4649).
NGC 4649 has the best observational constraints of any object in the sample. The radio data for this object show a
very point-like source, dominated by its core component at
high radio frequencies. The VLA 22 to 43 GHz data points
and the SCUBA sub-mm upper limit at (1011 Hz) also imply a very sharp spectral turnover in the radio spectrum
which is hard to explain with any non-thermal particle distribution, but easily obtained from thermal synchrotron radiation (DM99). The flux in the radio-sub-mm band is orders of magnitude below that expected from models without winds, but is easily matched by models with winds (see
Fig. 2d and 5 in DM99). The value of p required to account for the (lack of) radio emission ( 0.4) would produce a significant spectral break in the high energy X-ray
band due to the suppression of the higher temperature (inner radii) bremsstrahlung if rout 104 . Better agreement
with the data is again obtained by taking rout 300 and
p 0.5, which imply m
out 2.7 103 (thicker solid line,
Fig. 2d). The dash-dotted line shows a models for = 0.1.
The increased electron heating in models with winds implies
a slight increase in p in order to re-establish agreement with
the radio constraints (p =0.8; a slight decrease of rout might
also be necessary for the high energy X-ray data). Note that
models with winds (as required by the observational constraints) can easily allow for different fractions of electron
heating with no significant change to any of our conclusions
(see QN99 for a general discussion of this point).
5.1.2
5.2.2
NGC 1399
Fig. 2b shows three spectral models for NGC 1399. Both the
high frequency VLA data and the ASCA spectral slope are
inconsistent with with the p = 0 model (dashed line). Also,
the very hard X-ray slope is best accounted for by a model
with larger p and smaller rout so that no spectral break is
introduced around 68 keV (thinner solid line: rout = 104 ,
p = 0.4, m
out 9 103 ). A model which is consistent with
both the suppression of synchrotron radiation in the radio
and the hard slope in the X-ray band has rout = 300, p = 0.6,
and m
out 5 103 (thicker solid line in Fig. 2b).
5.1.3
NGC 4696
We do not have an estimate of the black hole mass in NGC

4696. Given that this is the most luminous and massive
galaxy in the Centaurus cluster we will assume that its black
hole mass is comparable to that of M87 or NGC 1399. In
detail, we assume m 5 109 (which is roughly consistent with the radio data). No high frequency radio data are
available for this object and the only important constraint
is given by the ASCA observations. The relatively high flux
and hard X-ray ray slope can be accounted for by models
with p 0.6 and rout 300 (thicker solid line Fig. 2c).
This implies m
out 0.03. Models with no wind would again
predict Compton dominated spectra with slopes too soft to
explain the ASCA observations (dashed line, Fig. 2c).
c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000

5.2
5.2.1
Virgo ellipticals
NGC 4649
NGC 4472
Although the VLA and SCUBA sub-mm data do not imply

a very sharp spectral turnover in this object, they require
significant suppression of the emission from the inner regions of the flow, as expected in the presence of a strong
wind. These limits, together with the ASCA X-ray flux and
spectral index, also prefer models for which rout 300 and
imply p 0.5 and m
out 5 103 (see Fig. 2e).
5.2.3
NGC 4636
NGC 4636 is the only object in this sample with m < 109 .
The relatively small black hole mass, as estimated by Magorrian et al. (1998), and the relatively high accretion rates required to fit the ASCA X-ray flux measurement, shift the
synchrotron peak to higher frequencies than those expected
by the radio and sub-mm measurements (Fig. 2f dashed
lines). In this case, the X-ray spectral slope and flux do
not constrain rout . Models with rout = 104 (p = 0.55 and
m
out = 0.03) and rout = 300 (p = 0.9 and m
out = 0.018)
provide satisfactory fits to the X-ray data.
Note that an increase in the black hole mass to m 109
(similar to the other objects) would shift the synchrotron
peak to lower frequencies and into good agreement with the
In DM99 the much lower accretion rate and differences in the
electron temperature could accommodate the peak position as set
by the data.
radio limits (solid lines in Fig. 2f). The very sharp spectral
turnover implied by the VLA observations can otherwise
only be explained by a very peculiar distribution of nonthermal particles with a very sharp cut off at relatively low
gamma or by an additional thermal synchrotron component
in the jet or wind.
We now turn to the general conclusions which can be
drawn from our modeling of the six nearby elliptical galaxies and a brief discussion of the crucial properties of their
environments and their influence on the accretion flows.
LOW RADIATIVE-EFFICIENCY
ACCRETION AND COOLING FLOWS IN
ELLIPTICALS
The broad band spectra of the six nearby elliptical galaxies

are characterized by one or both of the following properties:
a large X-ray to radio luminosity ratio (with indications of a
sharp spectral cut-off in the radio) and a hard X-ray spectral
index. These point to the importance of outflows in low luminosity systems. The strong synchrotron peak in the radio,
expected to dominate the broad band emission, is strongly
suppressed. The X-ray emission is typically extremely hard
and is well explained by bremsstrahlung emission. As discussed in Section 4, the introduction of a wind accounts for
these characteristic spectral features. Note also that these
conclusions are not dependent on the choice of the microphysical parameters (although high values are required for
consistency); in particular it is worth noting that significant
electron heating ( >
0.1) is perfectly viable.
The only object which does not show a spectral turnover
at high radio frequencies and which therefore does not require a mechanism to suppress the radio emission is M87
(apart from NGC 4696, for which no data is available to
constrain the high frequency emission). Recall that this is
the only object in our sample with a one sided jet which
is most probably relativistically beamed towards us (and, in
particular, M87 is among the more active FR-I radio sources
in central cluster galaxies) . As shown by the radio map of
Baath et al. (1992) the jet is resolved by high resolution
VLBI 100 GHz observations together with the core. As we
shall discuss later, contributions from such a jet might even
be important for what we are labeling accretion flow emission. Nevertheless, models which do not include significant
mass loss are unable to explain the hard X-ray spectral slope,
which is easily accounted for by bremsstrahlung emission.
6.1
Outer Radii and Angular Momentum
The amount of mass loss required to satisfy the X-ray to

radio flux ratio and/or the observed X-ray slope would give
rise to a cutoff in the bremsstrahlung emission at energies
The X-ray spectra of several of the sources are actually slightly
harder than expected from thermal bremsstrahlung emission (i.e.
in L for kTe < h). We expect that small amounts of
intrinsic absorption are responsible, since the observed slopes
are too hard to arise from any other likely process e.g. photon
starved thermal Comptonization, or non-thermal Comptonization; see also the infra-red (IRAS) limits presented in Paper I.
< 10 keV (apparently inconsistent with the ASCA data)
4
were the outflow to start at radii r >
10 . Better agreement
with the X-ray observations is obtained for outflows starting
3
inside the outer boundary of the flow at radii <
10 .
This result may suggest that angular momentum does
not dominate the flow close to the accretion radius, perhaps because angular momentum in the hot gas is transported outward in the halo by turbulence (Nulsen, Stewart
& Fabian 1984) or because the hole is moving with respect
to the gas. (In order that the gas shed at large radii may flow
unimpeded to the centre of the galaxy, its angular momentum must be dissipated. A rotating, contracting flow - as a
cooling flow in an elliptical galaxy - is very likely to become
turbulent. Angular momentum must then be transported efficiently outside the medium and is likely to be taken up by
some parts of the shed gas as the gas flows in). The inflow
across the accretion radius could then be roughly spherically symmetric with the specific angular momentum being
a fraction, , of the one required for a Keplerian orbit at
R<
RA . In particular, in order for the angular momentum
dominated flow to start at r rout 2 rA 103 , must
3
be <
0.03 (radial accretion is precluded unless 10 ).
Further investigations both on the theoretical and observational side are necessary to more carefully assess the values
of rout and the above hypothesis.
We now briefly discuss how the gas densities (i.e the
rates at which matter is fed at rout ) required to explain the
observed X-ray fluxes compare to the expected Bondi rates.
6.2
Accretion Rates and magnetic fields in the

central regions
The accretion rates for each model are obtained by normalizing the model to the measured X-ray fluxes. The results for
all of the models shown in Fig. 2 are tabulated in Table 4.
The accretion rates required to explain the X-ray fluxes are
consistent with the Bondi values predicted in Section 1.1
from the deprojection analysis of the X-ray gas. The differences in accretion rates, for a given object and X-ray flux,
with varying rout and p are mostly from the slightly different electron temperature profiles in such models. We also
note that the accretion rates implied by models with no
wind would be smaller by roughly an order of magnitude.
The X-ray flux in all such models is, however, due to inverse
Compton scattering of the synchrotron photons. In no case
can a Compton-dominated ADAF model give a satisfactory
fit to the radio and X-ray observations.
The Bondi accretion rates previously estimated for M87
by Reynolds et al. (1996) and for the Virgo ellipticals by
DM99 are typically a factor 5-8 lower than the ones presented in Section 1.1. The differences in the calculations arise
from the fact that we now take into account that the X-ray
1
gas density rises with decreasing radius as n
r . Near
the accretion radius it is typically larger by a factor of few
than at 1 kpc (used by the above authors). Although the
spatial resolution of the ROSAT HRI does not allow us to
directly probe the accretion radii in these objects (0.030.05
kpc) the observed density profiles are very well fitted by the
power-law models (as detailed in Table 1) between radii of
7 10 kpc down to 0.2 0.5 kpc. The density estimates
indicate that accretion rates of order 0.5 2 M yr1 are
perfectly plausible in these systems.
c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000


Table 2. Summary of data for the core of NGC 1399.
Frequency
(Hz)
F
(1015 erg s1 cm2 )
reference
notes
2.3 109
4.9 109
8.4 109
8.4 109
2.2 1010
4.3 1010
2.4 1017
2.4 1018
0.35
0.50
1.68
1.81
5.60
7.10
98
1350
Slee et al. (1994)

Sadler et al. (1989)
Slee et al. (1994)
Di Matteo et al. (1999)
Paper I
Paper I
PTI
VLA
PTI
VLA
VLA
VLA
ASCA
ASCA
PTI: Parkes-Tidbinbilla interferometer

Table 3. Summary of data for the core of NGC 4696.
Frequency
(Hz)
F
(1015 erg s1 cm2 )
reference
notes
2.3 109
4.9 109
8.4 109
2.4 1017
2.4 1018
0.57
2.70
1.17
358
6221
Slee et al. (1994)

Sadler et al. (1989)
Slee et al. (1994)
Paper I
Paper I
PTI
VLA
PTI
ASCA
ASCA
PTI: Parkes-Tidbinbilla interferometer

Table 4. Model parameters for Fig. 2
Object
rout
m
out
Line type
M87
104
104
800
300
100
104
104
300
104
104
300
104
104
300
100
104
104
300
104
104
300
0
0.37
0.4
0.45
0.5
0
0.44
0.6
0
0.4
0.62
0
0.38
0.52
0.8( = 0.1)
0
0.37
0.5
0
0.55 (0.5)
0.9 (0.62)
103
0.03
0.017
0.015
0.013
0.7 103
0.01
6.7 103
1.4 103
0.05
0.03
4 104
4.4 103
2 103
2.5 103 ( = 0.1)
5 104
8 103
5 103
103 (4 104 )
0.03 (6 103 )
0.018 (3 103 )
dashed
thin solid
dotted
thick solid
dotted
dashed
thin solid
thick solid
dashed
thin solid
thick solid
dashed
thin solid
thick solid
dot-dashed
dashed
thin solid
thick solid
dashed
thin solid (short dashed
thick solid (short dashed
NGC 1399
NGC 4696
NGC 4649
NGC 4472
NGC 4636
Notes: The values of p and m

out in brackets, for NGC 4636, refer to those obtained assuming m 109 , see also Fig 2f.
c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000

10
The gas densities at RA , estimated in Section 2, and

the corresponding accretion rates and best-fit model predictions indicate that the systems are accreting at close to
their upper limits implied by cooling. The main uncertainty
in the calculation of m
in these systems - given the measured
black hole masses - are the estimates of the temperature of
the cooling flows near the accretion radii. As discussed by
Gruzinov (1999; and along the same lines by Ostriker et al.
1976) turbulent heat conduction may cause the flow to become hotter and hinder accretion (although heat conduction
is likely to be suppressed in a magnetized cooling flows; see
Chandran, Cowley & Sydora 1998). Alternatively, thermal
instabilities may set up near the sonic point and remove
lots of the gas - although a central point mass would eventually re-suppress the instability at small radii. These issues
might be more easily addressed observationally in the near
future with high spatial resolution X-ray observations made
with the Chandra Observatory, which will determine the
temperature profiles in elliptical galaxies on spatial scales
approaching the accretion radius.
Given that the accretion rates in the ellipticals are similar to those in Seyfert galaxies and other active nuclei, it
is puzzling why these objects should exhibit such different
behavior. The different environments in the galaxies may
play a major role (see Fabian & Rees 1995; Begelman 1986;
Rees et al. 1982). When accretion proceeds from the (already hot) interstellar medium (with relatively low angular
momentum) the resulting quasi-Bondi flow may go directly
into a hot, radiatively inefficient solution. Such a solution
might be preferentially obtained in elliptical galaxies because the magnetic field strengths can be typically much
higher and close to equipartition values, even outside the
accretion radius (when the material has participated in a
cooling flow; Soker & Sarazin; 1990). An initially weak magnetic field can be dramatically increased by the radial inflow
and shear in a cooling flow (or any spherical inflow; Shapiro
1973; Meszaros 1975) - the combination of transverse compression and radial compression can enhance the magnetic
stresses proportionally to r 4 , whereas the gas pressure goes
no more steeply than r 5/2 . The magnetic field is built up
to equipartition values even before it reaches the accretion
radius. If the material enters the accretion flow with close to
equipartition magnetic fields, it might be more likely to accrete directly in a high- flow (as is expected to scale with
; e.g. Hawley, Gammie & Balbus 1996. Higher viscosity (if
>
0.1 can be achieved) would then allow the systems to be
radiatively inefficient. The presence of relatively large scale
(mostly radial) magnetic fields might also be important as
an agent for launching the wind itself. Finally, since at large
distances from the disk the inertia of the gas can cause the
magnetic field to become increasingly toroidal, the magnetic
stresses could also be responsible for converting the centrifugal outflow into a more collimated jet structure (as observed
in the different degrees of radio activity in most of the ellipticals).
7
7.1
ALTERNATIVES TO THE WIND MODEL

The Bremsstrahlung Interpretation
Yi (1995b) with the radio (DM99a) and X-ray observations

(Paper I) of nearby elliptical galaxies.
In particular, we have been arguing as if the
bremsstrahlung interpretation of the observed hard X-rays
fixes the accretion rate to be the Bondi rate. This is not
strictly correct; the bremsstrahlung luminosity depends only
on the gas density and temperature, not on the accretion
rate. What the X-ray observations fix, then, is (Rout )
M (Rout )/|vr (Rout )| where vR (Rout ) is the radial velocity
of the gas near the outer radius of the accretion flow. The
Bondi solution has vr vK while the ADAF solution has
vr vK , where vK is the Keplerian or free fall velocity
at RA . Consequently, the X-ray observations fix M (Rout )/
(cf Narayan & Yi 1995b).
The radio observations, on the other hand, are sensitive
to (Rin ) and Te (Rin ), the flow properties close to the black
hole. Since vR c near the black hole (gas flows through the
horizon at the speed of light), the radio observations indeed
fix M (Rin ) (given , , , etc. which fix Te ). In fact, they
(Rin ) to be M Bondi .
fix M
In the previous subsection, we emphasized that
the accretion rates necessary to explain the X-rays as
bremsstrahlung are comparable to the Bondi value. This is,
however, for 0.1 (the value chosen here). If were to
be 1, the accretion rates consistent with the X-ray observations would also be M Bondi . Consistency with the observations would require 104 103 . In light of recent
work on MHD turbulence and angular momentum transport
in accretion flows (Balbus & Hawley 1998; Hawley, Gammie,
& Balbus 1996), we do not think that small due to small
viscosity is a viable possibility. A more interesting possibility
is a suggestion due to Gruzinov (1999). He pointed out that
if there is significant radial heat conduction in a Bondi-type
flow, it can lead to a strong suppression in the radial velocity
of the accreting material near RA . Thus, even in the absence
of viscosity (Gruzinovs model was non-ideal but inviscid),
the radial velocity may be much smaller than the free fall
value. His model could, on these grounds, account for the
observations of nearby ellipticals as well as the wind model
we have been emphasizing (without any outflow).
There is, however, one argument which we believe rules
out Gruzinovs proposal as a complete explanation for the
observations of DM99 and Paper 1. Namely, any model
with 1 which produces X-ray luminosities comparable to those observed will have a cooling time much shorter
than the inflow time of the gas and will therefore cool
catastrophically to a thin disk. More concretely, only for
2
m(R
out ) <
can cooling be neglected in the dynamics of
the flow (as is done in the ADAF and Bondi solutions). The
bremsstrahlung interpretation of the X-rays from nearby ellipticals fixes m(R
out )/ to be 0.1 (cf Table 4 and recall
that those models took = 0.1). Consequently, only models
with >
0.1 are consistent hot accretion flow models for
the systems at hand. This rules out any solution, including
Gruzinovs, which appeals to a low radial velocity near RA .
If indeed heat conduction (or other mechanisms) reduces
M (Rout ) M Bondi (but is still 0.1) the observed Xray flux (and the radio one, if the decrease is very severe)
must be produced by processes other than bremsstrahlung.
It is worth being slightly more explicit about precisely what

is required to reconcile the basic ADAF model of Narayan &
c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000

11
Figure 2. Spectral models calculated for ADAF models with and without winds. The central cluster galaxies are on the left-hand side
and the Virgo elliptical galaxies are on the right-hand side. The model parameters, corresponding to the fits, are tabulated in Table 4.
The long dashed line represents no-wind ADAFs;p = 0. The thicker solid line, models for rout 300. The thinner solid line, models for
rout 104 . The dotted lines in panel above and below the solid line (a) are for rout 100 and rout 800 respectively. The short dashed
lines in panel (f) assume m 109 . The dash-dotted line in (d) is for a model with = 0.1. Such models show better agreement with
the characteristics radio spectrum. The solid dots represent the best constraint on the core emission. The thick solid lines the slopes and
fluxes measured form the ASCA analysis (paper I), For the Virgo Cluster galaxies we assume a fixed luminosity distance of 18Mpc. For
NGC 1399 and 4696 the luminosity distances are calculated using the redshifts and an assumed cosmology of H0 =50 km s1 Mpc1 ,
= 1 and = 0 (29 and 63 Mpc respectively.
c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000

12
7.2

Photon Starved Comptonization and
Non-thermal Emission
In the above analysis we have assumed that the accreting

plasma is thermal and that there is no contribution to the
observed emission from non-thermal electrons. We have also
assumed that any strong winds/outflows are non-radiative
(this can be shown to be a plausible assumption within the
context of a particular hydro-magnetic wind; Blandford &
Payne 1982). Nevertheless, dissipation (in a flow/outflow
with a shearing, near-equipartition, magnetic field) is likely
to occur and, at least in part, it will do so in transient localized regions (behind shocks in the outflow or in sites of reconnection both in the flow and outflow) where a small number
of electrons achieve ultra-relativistic energies. These electrons would cool much more rapidly and their synchrotron
emission would extend to much higher energies (particularly
if Comptonization is important) than for thermal electrons.
The efficiency of these processes would be much higher, implying (in order to reproduce the observed low-luminosities)
that either the accretion rates (i.e., the densities) are much
lower than expected from the estimates given in Section 1,
or that such processes accelerate only small number of particles in localized regions.
The observed radio spectrum and, in particular, its extension to the infrared (and possible higher frequencies),
depends on how efficiently non-thermal particles can be accelerated. The fairly sharp cut-offs implied by the VLA and
SCUBA observations (of the Virgo ellipticals and NGC 1399
- but not M87) imply that any synchrotron emission from
a non-thermal distribution is unlikely to contribute significantly beyond 10 GHz and therefore will not extend to
X-ray energies.
One possible non-thermal model for the observed emission is that the same population of electrons produces both
the radio/sub-mm emission by synchrotron radiation and
the X-ray emission by the inverse Compton process. In this
case, we can describe the relativistic electrons by a broken power-law distribution function, with spectral indices
smaller and larger than 3, below and above a break energy
b (in units of me c2 ), respectively (e.g. N () n1,2 with
n1 1 1.5 for < b and n2 3 4 for > b ). The
peak of the synchrotron emission occurs at S (4/3)B b2 ,
where B = 2.8 106 B Hz is the Larmor frequency.
The observed spectral energy distributions for our
sources indicate that the luminosity of the soft/synchrotron
emission is typically a few orders of magnitude less than the
X-ray luminosity, implying that the Compton spectra would
arise from a photon starved plasma. The situation envisaged
here resembles the synchrotron-self Compton model developed for BL Lac sources (e.g., Ghisellini 1989; Ghisellini,
Maraschi & Dondi 1996; Ghisellini et al. 1998; in BL Lacs,
Compton scattering of other soft photons, such as those arising from a standard accretion disk or the broad line region,
can also be important; neither of these are, however, thought
to be present in the elliptical galaxies of interest).
One crucial difference, however, is the absence of a radio cutoff

in the spectrum of BL Lacs. This has important implications for
the inferred parameters of nonthermal models, as is discussed
below.
In those models (and others developed within the context of non-thermal photon starved - electron or pair - plasmas; Zdziarski & Lamb 1986; Zdziarski, Coppi & Lamb
1990) the sources are very compact (where the compactness parameter is defined by = L/R(T /mc3 )) which implies that all of the particles cool before escaping the source
(tcool tcross [( 1)]1 and tcross R/c). A steady state
can therefore be achieved.
A steep particle distribution is continuously injected;
due to self-absorption, synchrotron cannot emit the bulk
of this luminosity; in this case, it is primarily produced by
multiple Compton scatterings (and flat X-ray energy indices
<< 1 can be obtained). For the sources in ellipticals, however, < 1 even when r = 1. It is therefore difficult to have
an optical depth close to unity and for multiple Compton
scatterings to be important.
The injected power in non-thermal electrons can
nonetheless still be greater than the synchrotron luminosity
and would emerge as first order Compton scattering peaking at X-ray wavelengths. The maximum power in Inverse
Compton emission will occur at a frequency C (4/3)b2 S
where, from observations, C >
10 keV. Given the frequency
of the radio peak and a lower limit for C we can derive the
energy of the electrons contributing most of the power and
the required magnetic field strength: b (3C /[4S ])1/2
104 and B 105 Gauss.
The required magnetic field strength 105 Gauss is
an implausibly small fraction of the equipartition value for
the accretion flow (even in the presence of a strong wind,
Bequi 1 Gauss near r 1). Thus, it is unlikely that nonthermal synchrotron self-Compton processes in the accretion
flow are important contributors to the observed emission. It
is also not likely that field strengths as low as 105 Gauss
could be achieved in an outflow/wind or jet. Equipartition
with the radiation energy density (in particular for localized regions) would still predict much higher field strengths.
In any case, for such photon starved cases bremsstrahlung
emission from both a thermal or non-thermal population is
likely to be important. If the X-ray emission were due to
e.g. second (or third) order Compton scattering (for a similarly peaked electron distribution but with b a few 100),
the limits on B would be relaxed. In order for the the second order Compton scattering to contain the required X-ray
luminosity, would need to be high (e.g. 1, since the probability for a second order Compton scattering scales as 2 ).
Given the observational constraint that 1, large enough
optical depths would seem difficult to achieve (given the
highly sub-Eddington nature of the sources the jet emitting region needs to be localized and have low density).
We note that the case is different for M87. For this
object a sharp spectral turnover in the radio band is not
required by the data (see Fig. 2a). The spectral energy distribution (radio, optical data and the hard X-ray spectra)
is still somewhat double peaked but with similar luminosities in both the radio-optical and X-ray peaks. From above,
for b 100 (and assuming a lower limit for the high energy peak to be around 10 keV, although contributions up
to gamma-ray frequencies are likely to occur), the magnetic
field can be much larger than in the previous cases, comparable to the equipartition value. We cannot, therefore, exclude
some relevant contribution to the spectral energy distribution from non-thermal particles in M87. Note, although, that
c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000


the highly sub-Eddington luminosity of this source still puts
very strong constraints on the density and emitting region
size.
In conclusion, simple estimates of non-thermal synchrotron self-Compton models for the observed radio and
X-ray emission in nearby ellipticals suggest that highly
sub-equipartition magnetic fields are required (B 105
Gauss). This is contrary to expectations, both for the accretion flow and for a magnetically driven wind or a collimated outflow. We cannot, however, rule out other nonthermal models for the observed emission such as a jet seen
offaxis with separate populations of nonthermal electrons
producing the observed radio and X-ray emission by synchrotron radiation, or an unobserved source of soft photons
in the optical/IR available for Compton scattering, etc. Although these might quickly become rather contrived.
The
most
promising
means
of
distinguishing bremsstrahlung and non-thermal models is likely
to be variability, which is discussed in the next section.
13
A crude approximation to the above integral can be

obtained by setting (r) (r r ), where r is the radius
near which most of the emission at frequency originates.
In this case,
L (t)
A Min
L
t
1,
td (r )
3/2 !
(8)
is the power spectrum for the particular model given above

(A 1 is the amplitude of the fluctuation on the dynamical
time).
Even in the absence of a wind, r >

100 for all X-ray energies of interest (see Fig. 1). In fact, in the soft X-rays ( 1
keV), r 103 104 . For wind models, the value of r in
the soft X-rays is unchanged while in the hard X-rays (>
10
keV) it becomes r rout . That is, the bremsstrahlung emission in the hard X-rays is dominated by the radius at which
the wind becomes important (see Fig. 1b). Consequently,
variability studies at >
10 keV can explicitly determine the
value of rout .
For r 100, the dynamical time is 1 year. It is clear,
then, that within the bremsstrahlung interpretation there
should be no variability in the observed X-rays over a single
observing run. Furthermore, multiple observing runs should
detect significant variability only if separated by months or
even years.
To be slightly more explicit, Figure 3 shows the expected variability (calculated from eq. [6]) for five X-ray
energies for the model whose emissivity curves are shown
by dotted lines in Figure 1, namely a model with a wind
with rout = 103 and p = 0.5 (recall that these are observationally favored parameters). This model assumes that
only bremsstrahlung contributes to the X-ray emission (no
Comptonization or nonthermal particle emission). Note that
the relevant dimensionless variability timescale is t/td (r)
t/m9 (hence the abscissa in Fig. 3).
For t a day, the luminosity fluctuation expected is
< 0.1%. Even for t a month, L /L < 10% around 100
keV and L /L <

0.3% around 1 keV. Only on a timescale
of a year do we expect significant X-ray variability. Note
also the clear trend with X-ray energy: the variability is
greater at higher X-ray energies since this emission arises
from closer to the black hole.
Observations of short timescale variability would imply that either the flow is highly inhomogeneous and
bremsstrahlung emission is produced in localized, higher
density regions or that non-thermal SSC of thermal Comptonization in the central region is producing the observed
flux.
One further diagnostic for testing the bremsstrahlung
hypothesis is the observations of thermal X-ray lines, a test
that should be plausibly carried out with the Chandra Observatory (Narayan & Raymond 1999). If the X-ray emission is dominated by the bremsstrahlung emission the X-ray
spectrum of the accretion flow should exhibit thermal X-ray
lines (Narayan & Raymond 1999). Their presence would also
be an important discriminant for assessing the outer radius
of the flow (because of the strong temperature dependence
and the one-to-one mapping between temperature and radius the bulk of the line emission is expected to originate
from radii outside 104 ; Narayan & Raymond 1999).
k For bremsstrahlung, it is the dynamical time, not the light

crossing time, which is relevant.
If, as they should be, the bremsstrahlung emissivity fluctua-
tions are due to density fluctuations, the 3/2 power law in equation (7) becomes 3/2 + 2/3 (for Kolmogorov turbulence, either
hydrodynamic or magneto-hydrodynamic).
VARIABILITY
Here we give a brief discussion of the variability properties

of the bremsstrahlung model, the salient feature of which is
that there should be little to no short timescale ( day to
month) X-ray variability because the bremsstrahlung emission arises from relatively large radii in the accretion flow.
The bremsstrahlung emission from a radius r in the
accretion flow can be expected to vary by (at most) order unity on a timescale comparable to the local dynamical
time, given by td (R3 /GM )1/2 4m9 r 3/2 hours.k For
timescales less than td (r) the variability from emission at
radius r is suppressed. An upper limit to the suppression
can be made by noting that for t < td (r), there can still be
(at most) order unity variability from fluctuations on length
scales r vK (r)t . There are (r/r )3 such blobs varying
incoherently in a shell of radius r and thickness dr r. Consequently, for t < td (r), the variability amplitude should be
< [t /td (r)]3/2 . This is a strict upper limit because in reality there will be a power spectrum of fluctuations with
small scale fluctuations having less power than large scale
fluctuations.
The above analysis implies that the fractional luminosity fluctuation at frequency on a timescale t is given by
L (t)
=
L
d log r (r) W (r, t)
d log r (r)
(6)
where is the bremsstrahlung emissivity (examples of

which are in Figure 1) and
W (r, t) = A Min
t
1,
td (r)
3/2 !
c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000

(7)
14
8.1

M87
0
ROSAT HRI observations ( 1 keV) of the core of M87

show 20% variability on timescales of 6 months to a year
(Harris, Biretta, & Junor 1997). This is not easy to reconcile
with a wind-dominated bremsstrahlung model for the X-ray
emission. For M87, m9 3. Thus, if a model with p 0.5
and rout 103 is appropriate for M87, bremsstrahlung alone
would lead to <
1% variability at 1 keV on timescales of
a year (cf Fig. 3), inconsistent with the observations.
One possible resolution of this discrepancy is that rout is
103 so that there is significant X-ray emission from closer
to the black hole. We find that if rout <
30, 10% soft Xray variability can be produced (note from Fig. 1a that there
is a 10% contribution to the soft X-ray bremsstrahlung
luminosity from r 10 in the absence of a wind). If such
a small value of rout is applicable to all of the members of
our sample, however, very large values of p >
1 are required
to reproduce the observed X-ray to radio luminosity ratios
(note that this is not required for M87).
As emphasized in previous sections, however, M87 is
a peculiar member of our sample. It is the only system
for which high frequency radio observations do not show
a strong suppression (and therefore there are no strong arguments against significant emission from nonthermal particles; see the previous section). Its one sided jet, likely to be
pointing towards us, is known to contribute to the emission
in the very core region (Baath et al. 1992) and to produce
X-rays (knot A has a slightly smaller X-ray luminosity than
the core; Harris et al. 1997)
The core emission in this case is likely to contain significant contamination from unresolved jet emission, in addition to accretion flow emission. This is likely the origin of
the variable soft X-ray emission. Two reasons argue against
thinking that all of the X-ray emission is due to unresolved
jet emission with a negligible accretion flow contribution. (1)
Accretion at the Bondi rate in M87 should produce an Xray luminosity comparable to that observed and (2) there is
a clear correlation between the hard power law X-ray emission and the host galaxy X-ray emission in the six ellipticals we are studying (cf Fig. 3 of Paper 1 and discussion
therein). Excluding M87, these systems are not believed to
have jets which can produce hard X-rays at the level observed. Since M87 nicely satisfies the observed correlation,
the non-jet emission should therefore be comparable to the
total emission.
For a number of reasons, M87 is therefore a poor system in which to probe the (lack of) variability expected
from bremsstrahlung emission in our models. More promising candidates are the Virgo ellipticals (NGC 4472, 4636,
and 4649). The large X-ray/radio luminosity ratios in these
systems (in contrast to M87) imply negligible contributions
from Comptonized synchrotron photons in the X-ray band.
Jet emission in X-rays is also expected to be small in these
systems. Barring nonthermal particle emission from the accretion flow/wind (see 7), the X-ray emission should therefore be dominated by bremsstrahlung processes, providing
an excellent test of our variability predictions.
-2
-4
-6
-2
-1
Figure 3. The fractional variability expected at five X-ray energies (100, 30, 10, 3 & 1 keV, from top to bottom) as a function
of the timescale of observation in days. The figure assumes pure
bremsstrahlung emission in the X-ray band and a spectral model
with p = 0.5 and rout = 103 .
SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
The discovery of hard power-law emission (Paper I) from a

sample of elliptical galaxies has brought to a sharper focus
the study of nearby supermassive quiescent black holes. We
have discussed how the broad band spectral energy distributions of this sample of elliptical galaxies, accreting from their
hot gaseous halos at rates comparable to their Bondi rates,
can be explained by low-radiative efficiency accretion flows
in which a significant fraction of the mass, angular momentum and energy is removed from the flows by winds. Such
outflows are not simply an added parameter in the model
but a dynamically important component of accretion at low
radiative efficiency (Blandford & Begelman 1999). The characteristically suppressed synchrotron emission in the radio
band (excluding M87) and the systematically hard X-ray
spectra, as expected from thermal bremsstrahlung processes,
strongly supports the conjecture that significant mass outflow is a natural consequence of systems accreting at lowradiative efficiencies.
Bremsstrahlung emission in the 2 10 keV band is produced primarily at large radii in the accretion flow and is
sensitive to the rate at which matter is fed to the flow (m
out ).
By contrast, synchrotron emission originates from the interior regions and, for a given value of m
out , decreases significantly with increasing p (where p is the power-law index
p
of the accretion rate in the flow, i.e., m
m
out (r/rout
) for
r < rout ). We have shown that radio observations (DM99)
and ASCA X-ray fluxes can be explained by ADAF models only if m
out is of order the Bondi value 0.001 0.02,
p 0.5 1 and rout 100 1000. Significant electron heating (e.g. >
0.1) is also fully consistent with the outflow
c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000


models for ellipticals. In view of this, Sgr A might not be
very different from the elliptical nuclei we have studied here
and can also be explained within the context of strong mass
loss models (with the strict requirement, in order to satisfy the firm VLBI constraints, that >
0.1 in the Galactic
centre; see QN99).
The small values of rout relative to the accretion radius (rA 106 ) may suggest that angular momentum only
becomes important well inside the accretion radius.
We have examined possible contributions from nonthermal particle distributions (which are likely to originate
in shock regions and reconnection sites in the flow/outflows,
or in the observed jets). The observed lack of any extension of the synchrotron component towards IR and optical
wavelengths, and the typically high ratio of X-ray to radio
luminosity (in the Virgo ellipticals and NGC1399), places
strong limits on the magnetic fields strengths, implying that
any non-thermal components are unlikely to contribute significantly to the observed emission. A bremsstrahlung component is more likely to dominate the X-ray emission than
SSC. The case of M87 is less clear and non-thermal contributions, both at low and high energies, may occur. However, the highly sub-Eddington luminosity of M87 (and the
other galaxies in our sample) does not allow a simple connection with jet dominated, Blazar-like sources to be made.
Theoretical models and observations at higher energies (e.g.
gamma rays) are required to better assess the importance
of non-thermal models. Outflows, if present, should contain
most of the energy and mass but need to be very radiatively
inefficient.
The predicted absence of short timescale variability in
the X-ray band, which is expected if the X-ray emission
is primarily bremsstrahlung emission (which in wind models originate from rout 100 1000, where the dynamical timescale is months to years) will be readily assessed
with observations made with the Chandra observatory. If the
X-ray emission is dominated by bremsstrahlung processes,
the X-ray spectrum may also exhibit thermal line emission
(Narayan & Raymond 1999). Their presence would also be
an important discriminant for assessing the outer radius of
the flow (because of the strong temperature dependence and
the one-to-one mapping between temperature and radius,
the bulk of the line emission is expected to originate from
radii outside 104 ; Narayan & Raymond 1999).
As discussed in Paper I, even from a purely observational point of view, the low luminosities of the sources we
are considering and their characteristically hard and energetically dominant X-ray spectra, identify the elliptical
galaxy nuclei as a new class of accreting black holes, which
can be clearly distinguished from Seyfert nuclei (which are
most often hosted in spiral galaxies). We suggest that the
difference in radiative efficiency (readily assessed in ellipticals given the black hole mass and estimates of accretion
rates), manifested by the accretion flows close to the black
holes, in these different classes of objects, does not solely
arise from a difference in m
(the Bondi rates are adequate
to fuel an active nucleus in the elliptical galaxies and a thin
disk solution would be viable).
The accretion solution adopted is likely to depend on
the manner in which material is fed into the nucleus (e.g.
Rees et al. 1982; Begelman 1986). In spiral galaxies, the bulk
of the interstellar medium resides in a disk and it is plausic 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000

15
ble that a radiatively efficient flow persists all the way into
the black hole. In elliptical galaxies, most of the gas participating in the angular momentum-dominated accretion flow
originates from the hot interstellar medium that pervades
the galaxies (often forming a cooling flow). We have speculated that the increase in magnetic field strength due to the
radial inflow and shear in a cooling flow (with the magnetic
field pressure in equipartition with thermal pressure within
radii 10 kpc) might be the primary cause for the ensuing
high accretion flow. (Material fed into the accretion flow
would be highly magnetized and should scale to magnetic field strength; e.g. Hawley et al. 1996). High viscosity
parameters (if 0.1 can be achieved) would in turn give
rise to low-radiative efficiencies. The presence of relatively
strong magnetic fields in these environments can also play
an important role for driving and possibly collimating the
outflows. We suggest that the outflows could be energized
by loops of field anchored to the flow itself (and responsible
for driving the wind). At large distances from the disk, the
inertia of the gas can cause the magnetic field to become
increasingly toroidal. Magnetic stresses could be responsible
for converting the centrifugal outflow into a more collimated
jet structure. The development of radio structures in ellipticals may also be fostered by the presence of a hot interstellar
medium (and the more prominent radio structures in central cluster galaxies - the FRI type sources in the sample
- are the ones to be found in the gas richer, higher pressure environments; see also Fig. 3 in Paper I) and partially
suppressed by its absence in spirals. We note that, if not partially collimated, an outflow (which would contain most of
the accreted mass, 90 97 per cent) could stifle the accretion flow. If accretion is stifled the radio and X-ray emission
are likely to be produced by small numbers of non-thermal
particles in shock sites in the jets/outflows.
We further argue that low-radiative efficiency accretion
and its associated outflows maybe relevant for understanding radio-loud AGN. We are suggesting that the more active
M87, a classical FRI source (see also Reynolds et al. 1996)
together with NGC 1399 and NGC 4696 (also weak FRI
sources) provide us with some of the strongest evidence for
low-efficiency accretion. X-ray emission from FR-II sources
is often associated with the presence of broad iron K fluorescence lines and therefore thin accretion disks (e.g. 3C
109, Allen et al. 1996; 3C390.3 Eracleous, Halpern & Livio
1996). The difference in accretion mode (e.g. see also Begelman 1985) may also be manifested in the different properties
of FRI and FR-II sources.
The differences between elliptical and spiral nuclei does
not only arise from their different environments but also
from their respective histories: elliptical galaxies have black
hole masses of 109 -1010 M , consistent with those expected
if these galaxies have undergone a quasar phase in the past
(e.g. Salucci et al. 1998). Black holes in spiral galaxies do not
exceed 108 M , supporting the suggestion that accretion at
low-radiative efficiencies might be relevant in the final stages
of accretion in early type galaxies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Chris Carilli for the high frequency VLA data
of NGC 1399 and Dimitrios Psaltis for very useful conver-
16
sations. TDM acknowledges support for this work provided

by NASA through Chandra Postdoctoral Fellowship grant
number PF8-10005 awarded by the Chandra Science Center,
which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for NASA under contract NAS8-39073. E.Q. is supported by NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
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Low Radiative Efficiency Accretion in The Nuclei of Elliptical Galaxies

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Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

000, 000000 (0000)

Printed February 1, 2008

(MN LATEX style file v1.4)

Low radiative efficiency accretion in the nuclei of elliptical

arXiv:astro-ph/9905053v1 6 May 1999

1. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138

The discovery of hard, power-law, X-ray emission associated

Low radiative efficiency accretion in the nuclei of elliptical galaxies

proposed by Rees et al. (1982; see also Begelman 1986;

CLUES FOR UNDERSTANDING LOW

Black hole masses and accretion rates

The objects we consider are excellent examples of quiescent

Low radiative efficiency accretion in the nuclei of elliptical galaxies

For M87 this implies an accretion rate

The temperature of the interstellar medium, T , is assumed

sumption that gas will stay hot at R <

The spectrum of the accretion flow: testing

In a low efficiency accretion flow around a supermassive

Low radiative efficiency accretion in the nuclei of elliptical galaxies

THE SPECTRUM OF THE CORE EMISSION

In order to examine the nature of accretion in the present

Tables 4,5 and 6 in DM99). These include stringent limits

Accretion from the hot interstellar medium in elliptical

Low radiative efficiency accretion in the nuclei of elliptical galaxies

as in previous models by DM99 and QN99 (M = M out for

M Edd = Ledd /0.1c . We rescale the radial co-ordinate in

electron temperature, Te , and the magnetic pressure. The

SPECTRA OF ADAFS WITH WINDS

Note that emission observed at higher frequencies originates

Low radiative efficiency accretion in the nuclei of elliptical galaxies

contribute negligible to the bremsstrahlung emission.

COMPARISON WITH THE DATA

Figure 2 shows the observational constraints on the spectra

Figure 1. The bremsstrahlung emissivity, (ergs s1 Hz1 ), as

with the X-ray luminosity exceeding that in the radio band

Central cluster galaxies

Figure 2a shows the spectral models for M87 for different

Low radiative efficiency accretion in the nuclei of elliptical galaxies

X-ray emission is due to Comptonization of the synchrotron

We do not have an estimate of the black hole mass in NGC

c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000

Although the VLA and SCUBA sub-mm data do not imply

Low radiative efficiency accretion in the nuclei of elliptical galaxies

The broad band spectra of the six nearby elliptical galaxies

Outer Radii and Angular Momentum

The amount of mass loss required to satisfy the X-ray to

< 10 keV (apparently inconsistent with the ASCA data)

Accretion Rates and magnetic fields in the

Low radiative efficiency accretion in the nuclei of elliptical galaxies

Slee et al. (1994)

PTI: Parkes-Tidbinbilla interferometer

Slee et al. (1994)

PTI: Parkes-Tidbinbilla interferometer

Notes: The values of p and m

c 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000000

Low radiative efficiency accretion in the nuclei of elliptical galaxies

The gas densities at RA , estimated in Section 2, and