Accretion Rate and the Physical Nature of Unobscured Active Galaxies
  We show how accretion rate governs the physical properties of a sample of
unobscured broad-line, narrow-line, and lineless active galactic nuclei (AGNs).
We avoid the systematic errors plaguing previous studies of AGN accretion rate
by using accurate accretion luminosities (L_int) from well-sampled
multiwavelength SEDs from the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS), and accurate
black hole masses derived from virial scaling relations (for broad-line AGNs)
or host-AGN relations (for narrow-line and lineless AGNs). In general, broad
emission lines are present only at the highest accretion rates (L_int/L_Edd >
0.01), and these rapidly accreting AGNs are observed as broad-line AGNs or
possibly as obscured narrow-line AGNs. Narrow-line and lineless AGNs at lower
specific accretion rates (L_int/L_Edd < 0.01) are unobscured and yet lack a
broad line region. The disappearance of the broad emission lines is caused by
an expanding radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF) at the inner radius
of the accretion disk. The presence of the RIAF also drives L_int/L_Edd < 10^-2
narrow-line and lineless AGNs to 10 times higher ratios of radio to optical/UV
emission than L_int/L_Edd > 0.01 broad-line AGNs, since the unbound nature of
the RIAF means it is easier to form a radio outflow. The IR torus signature
also tends to become weaker or disappear from L_int/L_Edd < 0.01 AGNs, although
there may be additional mid-IR synchrotron emission associated with the RIAF.
Together these results suggest that specific accretion rate is an important
physical "axis" of AGN unification, described by a simple model.
