Related papers: Optical spectroscopy of blazars for the Cherenkov …
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 BL Lac object 3C66A is one of the most luminous extragalactic sources at TeV $\gamma$-rays (VHE, i.e. $E >100$ GeV). Since TeV $\gamma$-ray radiation is absorbed by the extragalactic background light (EBL), it is crucial to know the…
Active galactic Nuclei (AGNs) with their relativistic jets pointed towards the observer, form a subclass of luminous gamma-ray sources commonly known as blazars. The study of blazars is essential to improve our understanding on the AGNs…
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 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…
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…
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…
The multi-frequency Sedentary Survey is a flux limited, statistically well-defined sample of highly X-ray dominated BL Lacertae objects (HBLs) which includes 150 sources. In this paper, the third of the series, we report the results of a…
Blazars are some of the brightest UV and X-ray sources in the sky and are valuable probes of the elusive warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM; $T{\simeq} 10^5-10^7$ K). However, many of the brightest blazars$-$called BL Lac objects such as…
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…
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…
Context. Blazars are a distinct subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGN), known for their fast variability, high polarization, and intense emission across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays. Gamma-ray blazar…
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 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 optical spectroscopy secured at the 10m Gran Telescopio Canarias of the counterparts of 20 extragalactic gamma-ray sources detected by the Fermi satellite. The observations allow us to investigate the nature of these sources and…
A correlation between astrophysical high-energy neutrinos and blazars has been suggested by various authors. In particular, a likely association between IceCube events and intermediate and high-energy peaked BL Lac objects has led to a…
The extragalactic $\gamma$-ray sky is dominated by emission from blazars, a peculiar class of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Many of the $\gamma$-ray sources included in Fermi -Large Area Telescope Third Source catalog (3FGL) are classified…
Measuring spectroscopic redshifts for BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects, a class of blazar, is challenging because their optical spectrum lacks, or has weak, emission lines ( equivalent width $\leqslant5\AA$). In this situation, alternative…
Hadron beams are invoked to explain the peculiar properties of a subclass of BL Lac objects, the so-called extreme BL Lacs (EHBLs). This scenario predicts a quite distinctive feature for the high-energy gamma-ray spectrum of these sources,…
The Fermi Gamma-ray Observatory discovered about a thousand extragalactic sources emitting energy from 100 MeV to 100 GeV. The majority of these sources belong to the class of blazars characterized by a quasi-featureless optical spectrum…