Synchrotron peak luminosity, black hole mass and Eddington ratio for SDSS flat-spectrum radio quasars

Abstract

For a sample of 185 flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) constructed from the SDSS DR3 quasar catalog, we found a significant correlation between the synchrotron peak luminosity and both the black hole mass and Eddington ratio. This implies that the physics of its jet formation is not only tightly related with the black hole mass, but also with the accretion rate. We verify that the synchrotron peak luminosity can be a better indicator of jet emission than 5 GHz luminosity, through comparing the relationships between each of these two parameters and both black hole mass and Eddington ratio. The fundamental plane of black hole activity for our FSRQs is established as L r ∝ L x 0.80±0.06 M bh −0.04±0.09 with a weak dependence on black hole mass, however, the scatter is significant.