Related papers: On the redshift of the bright BL Lac object PKS 00…

Aims. We aim to determine the redshift (or stringent lower limits) of a number of bright BL Lacs objects. Methods. We secured medium resolution optical and near-infrared spectra of 4 bright BL Lac objects of unknown redshift using the…

We report results of a spectroscopic campaign carried out at the 10 m Gran Telescopio Canarias for a sample of 22 BL Lac objects detected (or candidates) at TeV energies, aimed to determine or constrain their redshift. This is of…

We are carrying out a multi-purpose program of high signal to noise optical spectroscopy at medium resolution of 30 BL Lac objects. Here we report the detection of three new redshifts, and the discovery of three misclassified sources. The…

Context. The study of BL Lac objects (BLL) detected in gamma-rays gives insights on the acceleration mechanisms in play in such systems and is also a valuable tool to constrain the density of the extragalactic background light. As their…

We introduce a new method to determine the redshift of unknown-redshift BL Lac Objects. The method relies on simultaneous multi-wavelength (MWL) observations of BL Lac objects in optical, X-ray, HE (E>100 MeV) gamma-rays and VHE (E>100…

We report redshift measurements for 12 BL Lacertae objects from a program aimed at obtaining high signal to noise (up to ~ 500) optical spectroscopy of a mixed sample of objects. The new observations, gathered with the 8 m ESO Very Large…

Aims: We present optical spectroscopy of a sample of BL Lac objects, to determine their redshift, to study their broad emission line properties and to characterize their close environment. Methods: Twelve objects were observed using the ESO…

We present results of an ongoing program at the ESO VLT for spectroscopy of BL Lac objects lacking a firm redshift estimate and here we report on 15 objects. For 11 sources we confirm the BL Lac classification, and we determine new…

The determination of the redshift of extragalactic gamma ray sources is of fundamental importance for the interpretation of their emission models and extragalactic population studies, AGN classification schemes, and to study the interaction…

We present Very Large Telescope optical spectroscopy of nine BL Lac objects of unknown redshift belonging to the list of optically selected radio loud BL Lacs candidates. We explore their spectroscopic properties and the possible link with…

The HST snapshot imaging survey of 110 BL Lac objects (Urry et al. 2000) has clearly shown that the host galaxies are massive and luminous ellipticals. The dispersion of the absolute magnitudes is sufficiently small, so that the measurement…

We report on ESO Very Large Telescope optical spectroscopy of 42 BL Lacertae objects of unknown redshift. Nuclear emission lines were observed in 12 objects, while for another six we detected absorption features due to their host galaxy.…

We investigate the spectroscopic optical properties of gamma-ray sources detected with high significance above 50 GeV in the Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources (3FHL) and that are good candidates as TeV emitters. We focus on the 91…

High signal-to-noise ratio spectroscopic observations of the BL Lac object S4 0954+65 at the alleged redshift z = 0.367 are presented. This source was detected at gamma frequencies by MAGIC (TeV) and FERMI (GeV) telescopes during a…

Direct redshift determination of BL Lac objects is highly challenging as the emission in the optical and near-infrared (NIR) bands is largely dominated by the non-thermal emission from the relativistic jet that points very close to our line…

We are carrying out a program of high signal to noise optical spectroscopy of BL Lacs with unknown or tentative redshift. Here we report some preliminary results. New redshifts are measured for PKS0754+100 (z=0.266) and 1ES0715-259…

BL Lac objects (BLL) are defined by the presence of very weak (typically $<$ 5 {\AA}) or even absent spectral lines. This makes determining their distance particularly challenging, especially at high redshift, where the sources are fainter…

Determining redshifts for BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects using the traditional spectroscopic method is challenging due to the absence of strong emission lines in their optical spectra. We employ the photometric dropout technique to determine…

The very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray spectral indices of blazars show strong correlation with the source redshift. Absence of any such correlation in low energy gamma rays and X-rays indicate the presence of Extragalactic Background Light…

The bright BL Lac object TXS 0506+056 is a most likely counterpart of the IceCube neutrino event EHE 170922A. The lack of this redshift prevents a comprehensive understanding of the modeling of the source. We present high signal-to-noise…