Related papers: Resolving the Host Galaxy of a Distant Blazar with…

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…

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 understanding of acceleration mechanisms in active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets and the measurement of the extragalactic-background-light (EBL) density are closely linked and require the detection of a large sample of very-high-energy…

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…

The high energy peaked BL Lac (HBL) object 1ES 0414+009 (z=0.287) is a distant very high-energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) blazars with well-determined redshift. This source was detected with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) between…

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…

(abridged) We present near-infrared Ks-band imaging of 13 high redshift (0.6 < z < 1.3) BL Lac objects. We clearly detect the host in eight objects, and marginally in three others. In all cases, the host galaxy is well represented by an…

Since the beginning of scientific operations in 2003, more than 20 extra-galactic sources have been detected with H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System) at very high energies (VHE): apart from the starburst galaxy NGC 253, all of them…

We report on the 1.6 GHz (18 cm) VLBI observations of the unresolved, steady TeV source HESS J1943+213 located in the Galactic plane, performed with the European VLBI Network (EVN) in 2014. Our new observations with a nearly full EVN array…

HESS J1943+213 is a very-high-energy (VHE; $>$100 GeV) $\gamma$-ray source in the direction of the Galactic Plane. Studies exploring the classification of the source are converging towards its identification as an extreme synchrotron BL Lac…

Since no spectroscopic redshift is available for the remarkable BL Lac object 1ES 0647+250, we aim to derive an estimate of its distance from the properties of its host galaxy.We obtained a deep, high-resolution near-infrared H-band image…

We investigate the properties of the host galaxies of X-ray selected (high frequency peaked) BL Lac objects using a large and homogeneous data set of high spatial resolution R-band observations of 52 BL Lacs in the EMSS and Slew samples.…

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…

High energy observations of extreme BL Lac objects, such as 1ES 0229+200 or 1ES 0347-121, recently focused interest both for blazar and jet physics and for the implication on the extragalactic background light and intergalactic magnetic…

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…

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…

BL Lacertae (Lac) objects that are detected at very-high energies (VHE) are of fundamental importance to study multiple astrophysical processes, including the physics of jets, the properties of the extragalactic background light and the…

The emission of very-high-energy photons (VHE, E$>$100 GeV) in active galactic nuclei (AGN) is closely connected with the production of ultra-relativistic particles. Among AGN, the subclass of extreme BL Lacertae are of particular interest…

We report on a newly detected point-like source, HESS J1943+213 located in the Galactic plane. This source coincides with an unidentified hard X-ray source IGR J19443+2117, which was proposed to have radio and infrared counterparts. HESS…

The unexpectedly hard spectra measured by HESS for the BLLacs 1ES 1101-232 and H 2356-309 has allowed an upper limit on the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) to be derived in the optical/near-infrared range, which is very close to the…