Mutual distance dependence drives the observed jet-power–radio-luminosity scaling relations in radio galaxies

The kinetic power of radio jets is a quantity of fundamental importance to studies of the AGN feedback process and radio galaxy physics. A widely used proxy for jet power is the extended radio luminosity. A number of empirical methods have been used to calibrate a scaling relationship between jet power (Q) and radio luminosity (L) of the form log (Q) = β_L log (L) + C. The regression slope has typically been found to be β_L ∼ 0.7–0.8. Here we show that the previously reported scaling relations are strongly affected by the confounding variable, distance. We find that in a sample of FRI X-ray cavity systems, after accounting for the mutual distance dependence, the jet power and radio luminosity are only weakly correlated, with slope β_L ≈ 0.3: significantly flatter than previously reported. We also find that in previously used samples of high-power sources, no evidence for an intrinsic correlation is present when the effect of distance is accounted for. Using a simple model we show that β_L is expected to be significantly lower in samples of FRI radio galaxies than it is for FRIIs, due to the differing dynamics for these two classes of radio source. For FRI X-ray cavity systems the model predicts β_L(FRI) ≳ 0.5 in contrast to FRII radio galaxies, for which β_L(FRII) ≳ 0.8. We discuss the implications of our finding for studies of radio mode feedback, and radio galaxy physics.