2010A&A...522A..89V

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_*∼10¹¹-10¹²M_☉) early-type galaxies located in the Virgo cluster. They are characterized by an extremely low radio luminosity, in the range L≲3x10²⁵-10²⁷>erg/s/Hz. We find that, accordingly, accretion in these objects occurs at an extremely low rate, 0.2-3.7x10^–3M_☉/yr, 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 ∼4 orders of magnitude in luminosity. A suggestive trend between jet power and location within the cluster also emerges.