EXAMINING THE RADIO-LOUD/RADIO-QUIET DICHOTOMY WITH NEW CHANDRA AND VLA OBSERVATIONS OF 13 UGC GALAXIES

We present the results from new ∼15 ks Chandra-ACIS and 4.9 GHz Very Large Array (VLA) observations of 13 galaxies hosting low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This completes the multiwavelength study of a sample of 51 nearby early-type galaxies described in Capetti and Balmaverde and Balmaverde and Capetti. The aim of the three previous papers was to explore the connection between the host galaxies and AGN activity in a radio-selected sample. We detect nuclear X-ray emission in eight sources and radio emission in all but one (viz., UGC 6985). The new VLA observations improve the spatial resolution by a factor of 10: the presence of nuclear radio sources in 12 of the 13 galaxies confirms their AGN nature. As previously indicated, the behavior of the X-ray and radio emission in these sources depends strongly on the form of their optical surface brightness profiles derived from Hubble Space Telescope imaging, i.e., on their classification as 'core', 'power-law', or 'intermediate' galaxies. With more than twice the number of 'power-law' and 'intermediate' galaxies compared to previous work, we confirm with a much higher statistical significance that these galaxies lie well above the radio-X-ray correlation established in Fanaroff-Riley type I radio galaxies and the low-luminosity 'core' galaxies. This result highlights the fact that the 'radio-loud/radio-quiet' dichotomy is a function of the host galaxy's optical surface brightness profile. We present radio-optical-X-ray spectral indices for all 51 sample galaxies. Survival statistics point to significant differences in the radio-to-optical and radio-to-X-ray spectral indices between the 'core' and 'power-law galaxies (Gehan's Generalized Wilcoxon test probability p for the two classes being statistically similar is <10–5), but not in the optical-to-X-ray spectral indices (p = 0.25). Therefore, the primary difference between the 'core' and 'power-law' galaxies is in their ability to launch powerful radio outflows. This result is consistent with the hypothesis of different formation processes and evolution histories in 'core' and 'power-law' galaxies: major mergers are likely to have created 'core' galaxies, while minor mergers were instrumental in the creation of 'power-law' galaxies.