Related papers: High redshift BL Lac objects: spectroscopy of cand…
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…
We have obtained high dynamic range, good natural seeing i' images of BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) to search for the AGN host and thus constrain the source redshift. These objects are drawn from a sample of bright flat-spectrum radio…
Context: BL Lacertae objects have been the targets for numerous recent multiwavelength campaigns, continuum spectral variability studies, and theoretical spectral and variability modeling. A meaningful interpretation of the results of such…
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…
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.…
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)…
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…
We present the last chapter of a spectroscopy program aimed at deriving the redshift or a lower limit to the redshift of BL Lac objects using medium resolution spectroscopy. Here we report new spectra for 33 BL Lac object candidates…
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…
We present high S/N optical spectra of 10 BL Lac objects detected at GeV energies by Fermi satellite (3FGL catalog), for which previous observations suggested that they are at relatively high redshift. The new observations, obtained at the…
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 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…
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…
We present a sample of 386 BL Lacertae (BL Lac) candidates identified from 2860 deg^2 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopic database. The candidates are primarily selected to have quasi-featureless optical spectra and low…
This paper describes the database of optical spectra of BL Lacertae (BLL) objects ZBLLAC available at the URL https://web.oapd.inaf.it/zbllac/. At the present date, it contains calibrated spectra for 295 BLL. For about 35% of them, we…
Narrow-band searches for Lyman alpha emission are an efficient way of identifying star-forming galaxies at high redshifts. We present Keck telescope spectra confirming redshifts z = 5.7 for three objects discovered in the Large Area Lyman…
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…
BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects are the prominent members of the third {\it Fermi} Large Area Telescope catalog of $\gamma$-ray sources. Half of the BL Lac population ($\sim$ 300) lack redshift measurements, which is due to the absence of…
BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects are a subclass of blazar, distinguished by their featureless optical spectrum. The featureless spectrum presents a challenge in measuring the redshift of the BL Lacs. In this paper, we measure the redshift of BL…
We present the radio detection of 18 BL Lac objects from our survey of over 575 square degrees of sky. These 18 objects are located within 20 arcsec of the X-ray position, of which 11 have a measured red-shift. All candidates are radio…