Accretion and nuclear activity in Virgo early-type galaxies

We use Chandra observations to estimate the accretion rate of hot gas onto the central supermassive black hole in four giant (of stellar mass M(*) similar to 10(11)-10(12) M(circle dot)) early-type galaxies located in the Virgo cluster. They are characterized by an extremely low radio luminosity, in the range L less than or similar to 3 x 10(25)-10(27) erg s(-1) Hz(-1). We find that, accordingly, accretion in these objects occurs at an extremely low rate, 0.2-3.7 x 10(-3) M(circle dot) yr(-1), and that they smoothly extend the relation accretion-jet power found for more powerful radio-galaxies. This confirms the dominant role of hot gas and of the galactic coronae in powering radio-loud active galactic nuclei across similar to 4 orders of magnitude in luminosity. A suggestive trend between jet power and location within the cluster also emerges.