An evolutionary scenario for blazar unification

Blazar subclasses ranging from flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) through low-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (LBLs) to high-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (HBLs) exhibit a sequence of increasing spectral hardness with decreasing luminosity that cannot be explained solely by orientation effects. Using an analytic model for the synchrotron, synchrotron self-Compton, and Compton-scattered external radiation from blazar jets, we propose an evolutionary scenario that links these blazar subclasses in terms of a reduction of the black hole accretion power with time. As the circumnuclear material accretes to fuel the central engine, less gas and dust are left to scatter accretion-disk radiation and produce an external Compton-scattered component in blazar spectra. This evolutionary trend produces the sequence FSR-Q --> LBL --> HBL. Such a scenario may also link radio-loud AGNs with ultraluminous infrared galaxies and optical quasars, if the latter constitute the high-Eddington-ratio epoch of supermassive black hole growth, as suggested by the observed anticorrelation between radio and soft X-ray activity in some Galactic black hole candidates.