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Related papers: An Optical View of BL Lacertae Objects

200 papers

BL Lacertae is a blazar known for its high flux variability and occasional broadband flares of unknown origin. It was in an extended flaring state from July 2020 until the end of 2021, making it an ideal candidate to study spectral and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-04-01 A. Priyana Noel , Alicja Wierzcholska , Raj Prince

Relativistic jets are a common feature of radio loud active galactic nuclei. Multifrequency observations are a unique tool to constrain their physics. We report on a detailed study of the properties of the jet of the nearby BL Lac object…

Blazars optical emission is generally dominated by relativistic jets, although the host galaxy, accretion disk and broad line region (BLR) may also contribute significantly. Disentangling their contributions has been challenging for years…

Blazars are active galactic nuclei with their relativistic jets pointing toward the observer, with two major sub-classes, the flat spectrum radio quasars and BL Lac objects. We present multi-wavelength photometric and spectroscopic…

We present the results of near-infrared H band (1.65 microns) imaging of 11 BL Lac objects with redshifts ranging from z = 0.05 to 0.9. We are able to clearly detect the host galaxy in seven low redshift (z<=0.24) BL Lacs, while the four…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 J. K. Kotilainen , R. Falomo , R. Scarpa

Advances in the capabilities of X-ray, gamma-ray and TeV telescopes have brought new information on the physics of relativistic jets, which are responsible for the blazar "phenomenon". In particular the broad band sensitivity of the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 Laura Maraschi

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…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-30 P. Giommi , P. Padovani , G. Polenta , S. Turriziani , V. D'Elia , S. Piranomonte

We investigate the host galaxy luminosities of BL Lac Objects (BLLs) and Radio Loud Quasars (RLQs) at z<0.5 imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). From a homogeneous treatment of the data we construct the host galaxy luminosity…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 Renato Falomo , Nicoletta Carangelo , Aldo Treves

We present the results of an extensive analysis of the optical, ultraviolet, X-ray and $\gamma$-ray data collected from the observations of the BL Lac objects prototype BL Lacertae carried out over a period of nearly 13 years, between…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-04-20 N. Sahakyan , P. Giommi

BL Lacertae is the prototype of the blazar subclass known as BL Lac type objects. BL Lacertae object itself is a low-frequency-peaked BL Lac(LBL). Very high energy (VHE) gamma ray emission from this source was discovered in 2005 by MAGIC…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2017-09-12 Anushka Udara Abeysekara

Observations of the gamma-ray sky with Fermi led to significant advances towards understanding blazars, the most extreme class of Active Galactic Nuclei. A large fraction of the population detected by Fermi is formed by BL Lacertae (BL Lac)…

A three-dimensional dynamical model for a galaxy hosting a BL Lacertae object is constructed. The model consists of a logarithmic potential representing an elliptical host galaxy with a bulge of radius $c_b$ and a dense massive nucleus.…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2014-10-28 Euaggelos E. Zotos

Recent VLBI studies of the morphology and kinematics of individual BL Lac objects (S5 1803+784, PKS 0735+178, etc.) have revealed a new paradigm for the pc-scale jet kinematics of these sources. Unlike the apparent superluminal outward…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2012-01-18 Marios Karouzos , Silke Britzen , Arno Witzel , Anton J. Zensus , Andreas Eckart

We present a radio/optical study of a sample of BL Lac objects at arcsecond and milliarcsecond resolution. The sample consists of 30 nearby (z<0.2) BL Lacs, mostly X-ray selected. These nearby objects are weak in the radio, yet we have…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 M. Giroletti , G. Giovannini , G. B. Taylor , R. Falomo

Blazars are highly variable, radio-loud active galactic nuclei with jets oriented at a small angle to the line of sight. The observed emission of these sources covers the whole electromagnetic spectrum from radio frequencies up to the high…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2016-04-20 Alicja Wierzcholska

Blazars radiate from relativistic jets launched by a supermassive black hole along our line of sight; the subclass of FSRQs exhibits broad emission lines, a telltale sign of a gas-rich environment and high accretion rate, contrary to the…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-28 Alessandro Paggi , Alfonso Cavaliere , Valerio Vittorini , Filippo D'Ammando , Marco Tavani

We propose a unified classification for BL Lac objects (BLs), focusing on the synchrotron peak frequency of the spectral energy distribution. The unification scheme is based on the angle Theta that describes the orientation of the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2016-08-30 Markos Georganopoulos , Alan P. Marscher

Blazars are a class of active galactic nuclei which host relativistic jets oriented close to the observer's line of sight. Blazars have very complex variability properties. Flares, namely flux variations around the mean value with a…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-01-19 Ze-Rui Wang , Ruo-Yu Liu , Maria Petropoulou , Foteini Oikonomou , Rui Xue , Xiang-Yu Wang

One of the major challenges in studying the cosmic evolution of relativistic jets is the identification of the high-redshift ($z>3$) BL Lacertae objects, a class of jetted active galactic nuclei characterized by their quasi-featureless…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2020-11-11 Vaidehi S. Paliya , A. Domínguez , C. Cabello , N. Cardiel , J. Gallego , B. Siana , M. Ajello , D. Hartmann , A. Gil de Paz , C. S. Stalin

We analyse 77 \textit{Fermi} sources and their potential low-energy counterparts previously proposed in the literature. These sources were classified as active galactic nuclei, mainly blazars, based on optical spectroscopy. The main goals…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-09-03 Alberto Ulgiati , Paolo Padovani , Paolo Giommi , Simona Paiano , Ciro Pinto