scholarly journals BL LAC POPULATION STUDY: EARLY RESULTS USING THE Fermi 11-MONTH CATALOG

2012 ◽  
Vol 08 ◽  
pp. 327-330
Author(s):  
LUCIE GÉRARD ◽  
SANTIAGO PITA ◽  
MICHAEL PUNCH ◽  
GILLES HENRI

In the framework of AGN unification, BL Lacs and their parent population would share the same intrinsic characteristics, the observational differences being due to the orientation of the jet compared to our line of sight. BL Lacs would be those objects whose jet is oriented towards us, Doppler boosting the emission. The growing number of BL Lacs detected at HE (> 100 MeV) and VHE (> 100 GeV) is a challenge for this scheme, since the high values of Doppler factors needed to explain the emission of these sources imply a large density for the parent population. We studied the BL Lac source sample detected by Fermi after 11 months of observation. Using the data presented in Fermi's first AGN catalog, we put constraints on the intrinsic characteristics of this BL Lac population, such as the intrinsic luminosity and Lorentz factor distributions. Based on these results, we used Monte Carlo simulations to constrain the space density of the parent population and the jet opening angle.

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 1460177
Author(s):  
LUCIE GÉRARD ◽  
GILLES HENRI ◽  
SANTIAGO PITA ◽  
MICHAEL PUNCH

In the framework of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) unification, BL Lacs and their parent population would share the same intrinsic characteristics, the observational differences being due to the orientation of the relativistic jet compared to the line of sight. BL Lacs would be the objects whose jet is oriented towards us, their emission being amplified by the relativistic Doppler boosting. Constraints arising from fast variability and/or large optical depth to pair production commonly imply large Lorentz factors. The growing number of BL Lacs detected at HE (> 100 MeV) and VHE (> 100 GeV) is a challenge for this unification scheme. Indeed, the high values of Doppler factor needed in the simplest radiative model to explain the emission of these sources imply a large density for the parent population. A possible solution to this Doppler factor crisis lies in considering different geometries for the jet. In this study, we use the BL Lacs detected at HE and VHE to investigate the intrinsic properties of the associated parent population. Using the results presented in Fermi's second AGN catalog and performing MC simulations of the parent population, we constrain the jet parameters: its intrinsic luminosity, Lorentz factor and geometric opening angle. The simulated density of parent population and Doppler factors of the objects detectable at HE within this population are presented according to the jet parameters.


1997 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 695-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erick. J. Guerra ◽  
Ruth A. Daly

AbstractRelativistic outflows from AGN can be parameterized by θ, the angle subtended by the direction of the outflow and the line of sight to the observer, and γ, the bulk Lorentz factor of the outflow. The Doppler factor, δ, and the apparent speed in the plane of the sky, βapp, are combinations of θ and γ. The Doppler factor can be estimated using either the equipartition Doppler factor, δeq (Readhead 1994), or the inverse Compton Doppler factor, δIC. These Doppler factor estimates are combined with observed βapp to solve for θ and γ for different categories of AGN.Ghisellini et al. (1993) compute δIC for 105 compact radio sources, and Güijosa & Daly (1996) compute δeq for the same sample. Daly, Guerra, & Güijosa (1996) estimate θ and γ for the 43 sources that have βapp listed by Vermeulen & Cohen (1994) and δeq computed by Güijosa & Daly (1996).Solutions and errors for θ and γ are presented in Figures 1 and 2 using δeq and δIC respectively. Guerra & Daly (1996) discuss these estimates and errors in greater detail. These AGN fall into the following categories: BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs), core-dominated high-polarization quasars (CDHPQ), core-dominated low-polarization quasars (CDLPQ), core-dominated quasars with no polarization information (CDQ(NPI)), lobe-dominated quasars (LDQ), and radio galaxies (RG).


1996 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 55-56
Author(s):  
C. Stanghellini ◽  
P. Cassaro ◽  
M. Bondi ◽  
D. Dallacasa ◽  
R. Della Ceca ◽  
...  

BL Lac objects are an enigmatic class of active galactic nuclei. They are characterized by high luminosity, a flat radio spectrum that steepens at higher energies, relatively high optical and radio polarization, rapid variability and an optical continuum with weak or absent emission lines (see Urry and Padovani, 1995 for a recent review).These properties have been interpreted in terms of a relativistic jet closely aligned to the line of sight (Blandford and Rees, 1978, Ghisellini et al., 1993). This model, known as the beaming model, implies that there must be a so called “parent population” of radio sources intrinsically identical to BL Lac objects, but with the jets oriented at large angles to the line of sight. Browne (1983) was the first to propose the low luminosity FR I radio galaxies as the most likely candidates for the “parent population” of the core dominated BL Lac objects. An outcome of the beaming model is that all the properties not depending on orientation should be shared by the BL Lac objects and the FR I radio galaxies.


1996 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 53-54
Author(s):  
M. Bondi ◽  
D. Dallacasa ◽  
C. Stanghellini ◽  
R. Della Ceca

The study of the extended emission and polarization properties of BL Lacs is an important step for the identification of their parent population. FRI radio sources, the supposed parent population of BL Lacs, have weaker extended radio luminosity and a dominant inferred magnetic field perpendicular to the jet, while FRII radio sources, the supposed parent population of quasars, have stronger extended radio power and an inferred magnetic field parallel to the jet. The only complete sample of radio selected BL Lacs (1 Jy sample, Stickel et al. 1991, ApJ, 374, 431) contains 34 objects. Unfortunately, about half of 1 Jy BL Lacs do not have very high dynamic range images, necessary to detect the low emissivity radio emission surrounding the bright compact source, either because the object was never observed, or because the observation was carried out at the beginning of 1980s with low sensitivity. In 1994 we started a programme using the VLA (A, B, and D configuration, see Table 1) and the WSRT (W in Table 1) to complete the high sensitivity radio imaging of the 1 Jy sample. We aim to investigate morphology and polarization properties, as well as the luminosity of the extended emission. This contribution presents the L band observations. The results are very preliminary, some of the data reduction is still in progress as well as the statistical analysis. The sources in Table 1 have been roughly classified as extended (E), or point-like (P) if no extended feature was detected. Among the 15 sources observed at the highest resolution 13 were classified as extended. In many sources we detect significantly much more extended flux than previously reported from earlier observations. Almost all the BL Lac objects we observed at the highest resolution show some extended features; furthermore, in a few cases, we detected emission on the arcminute scale. The power of the extended luminosity covers 3 orders of magnitude, 3 objects (0537–441, 0820+225, and 2240–260) have values typical of a FRII radio source. These new data will be used for an updated statistical analysis of the properties of the extended emission in the 1 Jy sample of BL Lac objects.


1996 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 477-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Sol ◽  
S. Appl ◽  
L. Vicente

BL Lac objects often show a quite distorted radio morphology. Almost 75% of the BL Lacs for which the information is available show an apparent misalignment angle ΔPA between the VLBI jet and the large scale radio structure larger than 45 degrees. This can be explained by strong enhancement of slight bending due to projection effects, especially if BL Lacs are the most highly beamed sources. However we recently performed a statistical analysis of misalignment angle histograms for 155 extragalactic radio sources of different types and found that the intrinsic distortion is significantly more important in BL Lacs than in quasars and even CSS sources. Indeed the best fits of the δPA histograms by a simple bend model correspond to γɸ = 123° for BL Lacs, 37° for quasars and 36° for CSS sources, where ɸ and γ are the jet typical intrinsic bend and Lorentz factor within a given class of sources (Appl et al, 1995). If, as currently thought, jets in BL Lacs have smaller Lorentz factors than in quasars, high intrinsic bending and misalignment appear to be the rule in BL Lac sources.


Author(s):  
Matthew T. Johnson ◽  
Ian M. Anderson ◽  
Jim Bentley ◽  
C. Barry Carter

Energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) performed at low (≤ 5 kV) accelerating voltages in the SEM has the potential for providing quantitative microanalytical information with a spatial resolution of ∼100 nm. In the present work, EDS analyses were performed on magnesium ferrite spinel [(MgxFe1−x)Fe2O4] dendrites embedded in a MgO matrix, as shown in Fig. 1. spatial resolution of X-ray microanalysis at conventional accelerating voltages is insufficient for the quantitative analysis of these dendrites, which have widths of the order of a few hundred nanometers, without deconvolution of contributions from the MgO matrix. However, Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the interaction volume for MgFe2O4 is ∼150 nm at 3 kV accelerating voltage and therefore sufficient to analyze the dendrites without matrix contributions.Single-crystal {001}-oriented MgO was reacted with hematite (Fe2O3) powder for 6 h at 1450°C in air and furnace cooled. The specimen was then cleaved to expose a clean cross-section suitable for microanalysis.


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