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[74.06] The radio-luminosity -- black hole mass correlation for quasars from the FIRST Bright Quasar Survey, and a proposed ``Unification Scheme" for radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars

M. Lacy (IGPP, LLNL and University of California, Davis), S.A. Laurent-Muehleisen (UC, Davis), S.E. Ridgway (JHU), R.H. Becker (UC, Davis), R.L. White (STScI)

Several independent lines of evidence now point to a correlation between black hole mass, M_h, and radio-luminosity. In this paper we discuss the correlation for quasars from the FIRST Bright Quasar Survey. These quasars fill in the gap between the radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars in the radio-luminosity -- optical-luminosity plane. We find that the corresponding gap in the M_h -- radio luminosity correlation is filled by the FIRST quasars. There is thus a continuous variation of radio luminosity with M_h, and no need for a ``switch'' at some set of critical parameter values to turn on powerful radio jets. The range of black hole masses associated with the most radio-luminous quasars is small, and therefore the radio-optical correlation for radio-bright quasars is essentially a correlation of accretion rate relative to the Eddington limit, \lambda , and radio-luminosity. We therefore suggest a new scheme to ``unify'' radio-loud and radio-quiet objects in which radio luminosity \propto M_h^{1.8 \pm 0.2}\lambda^0.3-1.0.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mlacy@igpp.ucllnl.org

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