The global energetics of radio AGN kinetic feedback in the local Universe

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
² Exzellenzcluster ORIGINS, Boltzmannstr. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany

^⋆ Corresponding author: zigo@mpe.mpg.de

Received: 5 November 2024
Accepted: 28 March 2025

Abstract

Context. AGN feedback is a crucial ingredient for understanding galaxy evolution. However, a complete quantitative time-dependent framework, including the dependence of such feedback on AGN, host galaxy, and host halo properties, is yet to be developed.

Aims. Using the complete sample of 682 radio AGN from the LOFAR-eFEDS survey (z < 0.4), we derive the average jet power of massive galaxies and its variation as a function of stellar mass (M_*), halo mass (M_h) and radio morphology.

Methods. We compare the incidence distributions of compact and complex radio AGN as a function of specific black hole kinetic power, λ_Jet, and synthesise, for the first time, the radio luminosity function (RLF) by M_* and radio morphology. Our RLF and derived total radio AGN kinetic luminosity density, log Ω_kin/[W Mpc⁻³] = 32.15_−0.34^+0.18, align with previous work.

Results. Kinetic feedback from radio AGN dominates over any plausible inventory of radiatively driven feedback for galaxies with log M_*/M_⊙ > 10.6. More specifically, it is the compact radio AGN that dominate this global kinetic energy budget for all but the most massive galaxies (10.6 < log M_*/M_⊙ < 11.5). Subsequently, we compare the average injected jet energy (E̅_Jet) against the galaxy and halo binding energy (U_bin), and against the total thermal energy of the host gas (E_th) within halos. We find that compact radio AGN lack the energy to fully unbind galaxies, but complex AGN reach E̅_Jet > U_bin in the most massive systems (log M_*/M_⊙ > 11.5), where such energy is likely deposited beyond the typical galaxy sizes. On halo scales, neither compact nor complex radio AGN provide enough energy to fully disrupt the global gas distribution, especially not for the most massive clusters. On the other hand, E̅_Jet greatly surpasses the global E_th for groups, thereby providing a crucial input to the gas and thermodynamical balance in these systems. Finally, we show that AGN jets can also significantly impact the local thermodynamical balance in the cores of large groups and massive clusters. Overall, our findings provide important insights into jet powering, accretion processes and black hole-galaxy coevolution via AGN feedback.