On the Origin of the Fanaroff – Riley Dichotomy

A small fraction of double radio sources show a peculiar and striking hybrid morphology; they have a distinctly FR I structure on one side of the nucleus, and a FR II structure on the other. We argue that the mere existence of these HYMORS is quite incompatible with the theoretical explanations for the Fanaroff–Riley dichotomy that are based upon the nature of the jet plasma, or those invoking an intrinsic property of the central engine. Rather, these HYMORS strongly support models that explain the difference between FR I and FR II sources in terms of asymmetry of interaction of the jets with the external environments. We further show that a model for radio source dynamics we had earlier proposed can neatly reproduce the observed dependence of the radio power dividing the two FR classes on the optical luminosity of the host galaxy, as found by Owen & White and Ledlow & Owen.