Universal feeding threshold triggers jet eruptions in black holes of all sizes

Researchers from the Institute for Advanced Study and Curtin University's International Centre of Radio Astronomy Research analyzed ten high-quality tidal disruption events to track black-hole feeding cycles. They observed that jets appear during two distinct phases: an early burst at very high accretion and a delayed outflow occurring hundreds to thousands of days later, once the accretion rate falls to about 2% of the Eddington limit.

This critical threshold matches the jet-triggering condition already known for smaller, stellar-mass black holes in the Milky Way, suggesting a universal physical mechanism across mass scales. The study combined optical, ultraviolet, X-ray, and radio observations from facilities in America, Australia, India, South Africa, and space. The findings could help astronomers schedule future observations, especially with upcoming instruments like the Square Kilometre Array, to catch these brief jet episodes more efficiently.