Bridging Bondi and Event Horizon Scales: 3D GRMHD Simulations Reveal X-Shaped Radio Galaxy Morphology

Understand

X-shaped radio galaxies (XRGs) produce misaligned X-shaped jet pairs and make up $\lesssim10\%$ of radio galaxies.

• XRGs are thought to emerge in galaxies featuring a binary supermassive black hole ($\rm SMBH$), $\rm SMBH$ merger, or large-scale ambient medium asymmetry.
• We demonstrate that XRG morphology can naturally form without such special, preexisting conditions.
• Our 3D general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulation for the first time follows magnetized rotating gas from outside the $\rm SMBH$ sphere of influence of radius $R_{\rm B}$ to the $\rm SMBH$ of gravitational radius $R_{\rm g}$, at the largest scale separation $R_{\rm B}/R_{\rm g} = 10^3$ to date.