On the Bl Lacertae Objects/radio Quasars and the Fri/ii Dichotomy

In the frame of unification schemes for radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs), FR I radio galaxies are believed to be BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects with the relativistic jet misaligned to our line of sight, and FR II radio galaxies correspond to misaligned radio quasars. The Ledlow-Owen dividing line for FR I/FR II dichotomy in the optical absolute magnitude of host galaxy–radio luminosity (MR–LRad) plane can be translated to the line in the black hole mass–jet power (Mbh–Qjet) plane by using two empirical relations: Qjet–LRad and Mbh–MR. We use a sample of radio quasars and BL Lac objects with measured black hole masses to explore the relation of the jet power with black hole mass, in which the jet power is estimated from the extended radio emission. It is found that the BL Lac objects are clearly separated from radio quasars by the Ledlow & Owen FR I/II dividing line in the Mbh–Qjet plane. This strongly supports the unification schemes for FR I/BL Lac object and FR II/radio quasar. We find that the Eddington ratios Lbol/LEdd of BL Lac objects are systematically lower than those of radio quasars in the sample with a rough division at Lbol/LEdd ∼ 0.01, and the distribution of Eddington ratios of BL Lac objects/quasars exhibits a bimodal nature, which imply that the accretion mode of BL Lac objects may be different from that of radio quasars. Subject headings: black hole physics —galaxies: active—galaxies: nuclei—quasars: emission lines—BL Lacertae objects: general