Related papers: The transition between BL Lac objects and Flat Spe…
Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs) and BL Lac objects detected in the first three months of the Fermi survey neatly separate in the gamma-ray spectral index vs gamma-ray luminosity plane. BL Lac objects are less luminous and have harder…
Blazars are classically divided into the BL Lac (BLL) and Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasar (FSRQ) subclasses, corresponding to radiatively inefficient and efficient accretion regimes, respectively, largely based on the equivalent width (EW) of…
We study the relation between the mass accretion rate, the jet power, and the black hole mass of blazars. To this aim, we make use of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the 11 months catalog of blazars detected at energies larger than…
The LAT instrument, onboard the Fermi satellite, in its first three months of operation detected more than 100 blazars at more than the 10 sigma level. This is already a great improvement with respect to its predecessor, the instrument…
We revisit the blazar sequence exploiting the complete, flux limited sample of blazars with known redshift detected by the Fermi satellite after 4 years of operations (the 3LAC sample). We divide the sources into gamma-ray luminosity bins,…
We have recently proposed a new simplified scenario where blazars are classified as flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) or BL Lacs according to the prescriptions of unified schemes, and to a varying combination of Doppler boosted radiation…
Average Spectral Energy Distributions (SED) for different subgroups of blazars are derived from available homogeneous (but small) data sets, including the gamma-ray band. Comparing Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQ) with BL Lacs extracted…
We present long term optical and near infrared flux variability analysis of 37 blazars detected in the $\gamma$-ray band by the {\it Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope}. Among them, 30 are flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and 7 are BL Lac…
We present statistical analyses of a large homogenous data sample of Fermi-detected blazars thoroughly studied in order to reassess the relationship between flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and subclasses of BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs)…
We collect data from the radio to the gamma-ray range for three complete samples of blazars: the Slew Survey and the 1Jy samples of BL Lacs and the 2Jy sample of Flat Spectrum Radio-Loud Quasars (FSRQs). The fraction of objects detected in…
Blazars have traditionally been separated into two broad categories based upon their optical emission characteristics; BL Lacs, with faint or no emission lines, and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) with prominent, broad emission lines.…
Blazars constitute the most enigmatic class of extragalactic gamma-ray sources, and their observational features have been ascribed to a relativistic jet closely aligned to the line of sight. They are generally divided in two main classes:…
Many blazars detected by the Fermi satellite, observed spectroscopically in the optical, are line-less, and have been classified as BL Lac objects. Optical-UV photometry of nearly one hundred of them allowed to determine the redshift for a…
We compiled the radio, optical, and X-ray data of blazars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) database, and presented the distribution of luminosities and broad band spectral indices. The distribution of luminosities shows that the…
We show that a blazar classification in BL Lacs and Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars may not be adequate when it relies solely on the equivalent widths (EWs) of optical lines. In fact, depending on redshift, some strong emission lines can fall…
We investigate the evolution of spectral energy distribution (SED) and underlying electron energy distribution (EED) by modeling the nearly simultaneous broadband spectra of selected bright 4FGL blazars, in the context of a combined cooling…
The extragalactic $\gamma$-ray sky is dominated by blazars and their study plays an important role in understanding jet physics, cosmic evolution history and origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays. In this work, we study a large sample of…
Blazars are currently separated into BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQ) based on the strength of their emission lines. This is done rather arbitrarily by defining a diagonal line in the Ca H&K break value…
Blazars can be divided into two subtypes, flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and BL Lac objects, which have been distinguished phenomenologically by the strength of their optical emission lines, while their physical nature and relationship…
We propose a scenario where blazars are classified as flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), BL Lacs, low synchrotron, or high synchrotron peaked objects according to a varying mix of the Doppler boosted radiation from the jet, the emission…