2003ApJ...588..175F

Chandra observations of the supermassive black hole in the nucleus of IC 1459 show a weak (L_X=8x10⁴⁰ ergs s^–1, 0.3-8 keV), unabsorbed nuclear X-ray source, with a slope Γ=1.88±0.09, and no strong Fe K line at 6.4 keV (EW<382 eV). This describes a normal active galactic nucleus (AGN) X-ray spectrum but lies at 3x10^–7 below the Eddington limit. The spectral energy distribution of the IC 1459 nucleus is extremely radio-loud compared to normal radio-loud quasars. The nucleus is surrounded by a hot interstellar medium (kT∼0.5-0.6 keV) with an average density of 0.3 cm^–3, within the central ∼180 pc radius, which is comparable to the gravitational capture radius, r_A∼140 pc. We estimate that for a standard AGN efficiency of 10%, the Bondi accretion would correspond to a luminosity of ∼6x10⁴⁴ ergs s^–1, nearly 4 orders of magnitude higher than L_X. ADAF solutions can explain the X-ray spectrum, but not the high radio/X-ray ratio. A jet model fits the radio-100 µm and X-ray spectra well. The total power in this jet is ∼10% of L_Bondi, implying that accretion close to the Bondi rate is needed.