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Description
To better constrain the hypotheses proposed to explain why only a few quasars are radio loud (R_L_), we compare the characteristics of 1958 nearby (z<=0.3) SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) quasars, covered by the FIRST (Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty Centimeters) and NVSS (NRAO VLA Sky Survey) radio surveys. Only 22 per cent are R_L_ with log(L_1.4GHz_)>=22.5W/Hz, the majority being compact (C), weak radio sources (WRS), with log(L_1.4GHz_)<24.5W/Hz. 15 per cent of the RL quasars have extended radio morphologies: 3 per cent have a core and a jet (J), 2 per cent have a core with one lobe (L), and 10 per cent have a core with two lobes (T), the majority being powerful radio sources (PRS), with log(L_1.4GHz_)>=24.5W/Hz. In general, RL quasars have higher bolometric luminosities and ionization powers than radio-quiet (RQ) quasars. The WRS have comparable black hole (BH) masses as the RQ quasars, but higher accretion rates or radiative efficiencies. The PRS have higher BH masses than the WRS, but comparable accretion rates or radiative efficiencies. The WRS also have higher FWHM_{[OIII]} than the PRS, consistent with a coupling of the spectral characteristics of the quasars with their radio morphologies. Inspecting the SDSS images and applying a neighbour search algorithm reveal no difference between the RQ and RL quasars of their host galaxies, environments, and interaction. Our results prompt the conjecture that the phenomenon that sparks the RL phase in quasars is transient, intrinsic to the active galactic nuclei, and stochastic, due to the chaotic nature of the accretion process of matter on to the BHs.
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