By combining the recently derived X-ray luminosity function for Galactic X-ray binaries ( XRBs ) by Grimm et al .
( 2002 ) and the radio–X-ray–mass relation of accreting black holes found by Merloni et al .
( 2003 ) , we derive predictions for the radio luminosity function and radio flux distribution ( logN/logS ) for XRBs .
Based on the interpretation that the radio–X-ray–mass relation is an expression of an underlying relation between jet power and nuclear radio luminosity , we derive the kinetic luminosity function for Galactic black hole jets , up to a normalization constant in jet power .
We present estimates for this constant on the basis of known ratios of jet power to core flux for AGN jets and available limits for individual XRBs .
We find that , if XRB jets do indeed fall on the same radio flux–kinetic power relation as AGN jets , the estimated mean kinetic luminosity of typical low/hard state jets is of the order of \langle W _ { XRB } \rangle \sim 2 \times 10 ^ { 37 } { ergs s ^ { -1 } } , with a total integrated power output of W _ { XRB } \sim 5.5 \times 10 ^ { 38 } { ergs s ^ { -1 } } .
We find that the power carried in transient jets should be of comparable magnitude to that carried in low/hard state jets .
Including neutron star systems increases this estimate to W _ { XRB,tot } \sim 9 \times 10 ^ { 38 } { ergs s ^ { -1 } } .
We estimate the total kinetic energy output from low/hard state jets over the history of the Galaxy to be E _ { XRB } \sim 7 \times 10 ^ { 56 } { ergs } .