New Insights on the QSO Radio-Loud/Radio-Quiet Dichotomy: SDSS Spectra in the Context of the 4D Eigenvector1 Parameter Space

TL;DR

This study investigates the radio-loud/radio-quiet dichotomy in quasars using SDSS spectra and radio data, revealing that RL quasars occupy a more restricted optical parameter space and supporting the existence of a true dichotomy.

Contribution

It introduces a new spectroscopic diagnostic space (4DE1) to distinguish RL and RQ quasars, providing evidence for a genuine dichotomy and clarifying the nature of radio intermediate sources.

Findings

RL quasars have a more restricted domain in the 4DE1 optical plane.

Significant differences in 4DE1 space support the dichotomy.

No FRI sources found among broad line quasars.

Abstract

We search fora dichotomy/bimodality between Radio Loud (RL) and Radio Quiet (RQ) Type 1 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We examine several samples of SDSS QSOs with high S/N optical spectra and matching FIRST/NVSS radio observations. We use the radio data to identify the weakest RL sources with FRII structure to define a RL/RQ boundary which corresponds to log L$_{1.4GHz}$=31.6 ergs s$^{-1}$ Hz$^{-1}$. We measure properties of broad line H$\beta$ and FeII emission to define the optical plane of a 4DE1 spectroscopic diagnostic space. The RL quasars occupy a much more restricted domain in this optical plane compared to the RQ sources, which a 2D Kolmogorov-Smirnov test finds to be highly significant. This tells us that the range of BLR kinematics and structure for RL sources is more restricted than for the RQ QSOs, which supports the notion of dichotomy. FRII and CD RL sources also show significant 4DE1 domain differences that likely reflect differences in line of sight orientation (inclined vs. face-on respectively) for these two classes. The possibility of a distinct Radio Intermediate (RI) population between RQ and RL source is disfavored because a 4DE1 diagnostic space comparison shows no difference between RI and RQ sources. We show that searches for dichotomy in radio vs. bolometric luminosity diagrams will yield ambiguous results mainly because in a reasonably complete sample the radio brightest RQ sources will be numerous enough to blur the gap between RQ and RL sources. Within resolution constraints of NVSS and FIRST we find no FRI sources among the broad line quasar population.