Related papers: An Optical View of BL Lacertae Objects
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…
When a radio jet is partially optically thick in the launching region, its apparent compact core may display frequency-dependent positional shifts. High-precision astrometric measurements of core shifts enable astronomers to pinpoint the…
We present Chandra observations of the X-ray environment of a sample of 6 BL Lacertae objects. The improved sensitivity of the ACIS experiment allows us to separate the core X-ray emission from the contribution of diffuse emission from the…
Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) are active galactic nuclei (AGN) recently identified as a new class of $\gamma$-ray sources. The high energy emission is explained by the presence of a relativistic jet observed at small angles, just…
Our recent progress on time-dependent modeling of the multiwavelength spectra and variability of blazars with leptonic and hadronic jet models is reviewed. Special emphasis is placed on X-ray spectral variability of low-frequency peaked…
Detailed VLA observations have been gathered for a number of sources classified as either BL Lacs or galaxies, derived from the REX survey. We focus in particular on the sources identified by us, for which we have in hand homogeneous…
HST observations have shown that low-redshift 3CR radio galaxies often exhibit a point-like optical component positionally coincident with the GHz-frequency radio core. In this paper we discuss the correlation between the luminosities of…
We present new clues to the problem of the radio loudness dichotomy arising from an extensive search for intranight optical variability in seven sets of optically luminous radio-quiet quasars and (radio-loud) BL Lacertae objects, which are…
Relativistic jets are one of the most powerful manifestations of the release of energy produced around supermassive black holes at the centre of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Their emission is observed across the entire electromagnetic…
Observations of candidate BL Lacertae objects spectroscopically selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) reveal a large fraction with high polarization (P > 3%). This result confirms that synchrotron radiation makes an important…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) with relativistic jets are the most powerful persistent astrophysical sources of electromagnetic radiation in the Universe. Blazars are the most extreme subclass of AGN with jets directed along the line of sight…
In October 2024, the object BL Lacertae experienced the brightest flaring event in gamma-ray ($>$100 MeV) with a historically bright $\gamma$-ray flux of $\sim$2.59 $\times 10^{-5}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ with a detection of a 175.7 GeV…
The most extreme active galactic nuclei (AGN) are the radio active ones whose relativistic jet propagates close to our line of sight. These objects were first classified according to their emission line features into flat-spectrum radio…
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…
Blazars are astrophysical sources whose emission is dominated by non-thermal processes, typically interpreted as synchrotron and inverse Compton emission. Although the general picture is rather robust and consistent with observations, many…
This article focuses on certain variability and emission characteristics of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), especially their radio-loud subset consisting of quasars, BL Lacs and $\gamma$-ray detected narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies, all of…
Polarimetric measurements, especially if extended at high energy, are expected to provide important insights into the mechanisms underlying the acceleration of relativistic particles in jets. In a previous work we have shown that the…
The broadband emission observed from radio galaxies, BL Lac objects and quasars is thought to be produced by energetic electrons confined in plasma blobs which are ejected from supermassive black holes at relativistic speeds. The lower…
The term 'active galactic nuclei' (AGN) subtends a huge variety of objects, classified on their properties at different wavelengths. Peaked sources (PS) represent a class of AGN at the first stage of evolution, characterised by a peaked…
Recent multifrequency polarimetric observations of the eponymous blazar BL Lac reveal an extremely large degree of polarization in the optical band (average of $25\%$, reaching $45\%$), together with a small ($\lesssim 7\%$) degree of…