The Pearson‐Readhead Survey of Compact Extragalactic Radio Sources from Space. II. Analysis of Source Properties

We have performed a multi-dimensional correlation analysis on the observedproperties of a statistically complete core-selected sample of compactradio-loud active galactic nuclei, based on data from the VLBI Space ObservingProgramme (Paper I) and previously published studies. Our sample is drawn fromthe well-studied Pearson-Readhead (PR) survey, and is ideally suited forinvestigating the general effects of relativistic beaming in compact radiosources. In addition to confirming many previously known correlations, we havediscovered several new trends that lend additional support to the beamingmodel. These trends suggest that the most highly beamed sources incore-selected samples tend to have a) high optical polarizations; b) largepc/kpc-scale jet misalignments; c) prominent VLBI core components; d)one-sided, core, or halo radio morphology on kiloparsec scales; e) narrowemission line equivalent widths; and f) a strong tendency for intradayvariability at radio wavelengths. We have used higher resolution space andground-based VLBI maps to confirm the bi-modality of the jet misalignmentdistribution for the PR survey, and find that the sources with aligned parsec-and kiloparsec-scale jets generally have arcsecond-scale radio emission on bothsides of the core. The aligned sources also have broader emission line widths.We find evidence that the BL Lacertae objects in the PR survey are all highlybeamed, and have very similar properties to the high-optically polarizedquasars, with the exception of smaller redshifts. A cluster analysis on ourdata shows that after partialing out the effects of redshift, the luminositiesof our sample objects in various wave bands are generally well-correlated witheach other, but not with other source properties.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Part I can be found at astro-ph/010227