Toward a New Paradigm for the Unification of Radio Loud AGN and its Connection to Accretion

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new framework unifying radio loud AGN types based on their jet properties and accretion modes, supported by observational correlations between jet power, AGN classification, and orientation.

Contribution

It introduces a unification scheme linking AGN jet characteristics with accretion efficiency, supported by new observational evidence across different source populations.

Findings

Jet kinetic power increases along the aligned object sequence.

Fraction of BL Lac objects decreases with jet power in powerful sources.

In powerful sources, BL Lac fraction increases with less alignment.

Abstract

We recently argued (Meyer 2011) that the collective properties of radio loud active galactic nuclei point to the existence of two families of sources, one of powerful sources with single velocity jets and one of weaker jets with significant velocity gradients in the radiating plasma. These families also correspond to different accretion modes and therefore different thermal and emission line intrinsic properties: powerful sources have radiatively efficient accretion disks, while in weak sources accretion must be radiatively inefficient. Here, after we briefly review of our recent work, we present the following findings that support our unification scheme: (i) along the broken sequence of aligned objects, the jet kinetic power increases. (ii) in the powerful branch of the sequence of aligned objects the fraction of BLLs decreases with increasing jet power. (iii) for powerful sources, the fraction of BLLs increases for more un-aligned objects, as measured by the core to extended radio emission. Our results are also compatible with the possibility that a given accretion power produces jets of comparable kinetic power.