Related papers: Surveys and the Blazar Parameter Space
We discuss the preliminary results of an extensive effort to address the fundamental, and yet un-answered, question that can be trivialized as: ``are there more blue or red blazars?''. This problematic is tightly connected with the much…
We have recently proposed a new scenario where blazars are classified as flat-spectrum radio quasars or BL Lacs according to the prescriptions of unified schemes, and to a varying combination of Doppler boosted radiation from the jet,…
Multi-Messenger observations and theory of astrophysical objects is fast becoming a critical research area in the astrophysics scientific community. In particular, point-like objects like that of BL Lac, flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQ),…
Low-frequency radio surveys allow in-depth studies and new analyses of classes of sources previously known and characterised only in other bands. In recent years, low radio frequency observations of blazars have been available thanks to new…
I address the need for deep blazar surveys by showing that our current understanding of blazars is based on a relatively small number of intrinsically luminous sources. I then review the on-going deeper surveys, addressing in particular…
Historically, the blazar population has been poorly understood at low frequencies because survey sensitivity and angular resolution limitations have made it difficult to identify megahertz counterparts. We used the LOFAR Two-Metre Sky…
We have undertaken a survey for blazars by correlating the ROSAT WGACAT database with publicly available radio catalogs, restricting our candidate list to serendipitous flat-spectrum sources (alpha_r <= 0.7). We discuss here our survey…
Blazars exhibit flux and spectral variations of largest amplitude at the highest frequencies. Therefore, monitoring their variability at X- and gamma-rays is the most effective tool to peer into the mighty powerhouse of these sources. High…
Blazars are known to display strong and erratic variability at almost all the wavelengths of electromagnetic spectrum. Presently, variability studies at high-energies (hard X-rays, gamma-rays) are hampered by low sensitivity of the…
Our present knowledge of the properties of blazars mostly comes from small samples of bright objects, especially regarding studies on their cosmological evolution. Statistically well defined and completely identified samples of faint…
Active galactic nuclei come in many varieties. A minority of them are radio-loud, and exhibit two opposite prominent plasma jets extending from the proximity of the supermassive black hole up to megaparsec distances. When one of the…
Blazars are characterized by rapid variability at virtually all wavelengths from radio through TeV gamma-rays. The challenge since their discovery has been to understand the origin of their luminous, apparently nonthermal, nuclear emission.…
We present the preliminary results from two new surveys of blazars that have direct implications on the GLAST detection of extragalactic sources from two different perspectives: microwave selection and a combined deep X-ray/radio selection.…
I describe a general framework that could allow to understand the broad band spectra of blazars and lead to a unified picture of the emission from relativistic jets, in BL Lac objects as well as in flat spectrum, radio loud Quasars. The…
We analyse a group of radio sources, a subset of the 200 mJy sample, all of which have core-jet radio structures measured with VLBI and have flat spectra stretching from the radio to the millimetre/sub-millimetre band. Thus the objects have…
We collect data from the radio to the gamma-ray range for three complete samples of blazars: the Slew Survey and the 1Jy samples of BL Lacs and the 2Jy sample of Flat Spectrum Radio-Loud Quasars (FSRQs). The fraction of objects detected in…
Blazars are the brightest and most abundant persistent sources in the extragalactic gamma-ray sky. Due to their significance, they are often observed across various energy bands to explore potential correlations between emissions at…
The present status of the blazar spectral sequence is discussed, including new findings about blazars selected with different criteria than the original complete radio-samples. Despite extensive searches of blazars "breaking" the sequence,…
We discuss the properties of the sources in the CLASS Blazar survey which aims at the selection of low radio power (P(5GHz)<10^25 W Hz^-1) blazars. We use VLA data from available catalogues and from our own observations to constrain the…
The advent of large area deep radio and X-ray surveys is leading to the creation of many new BL Lac samples. In particular, the ROSAT All-Sky, Green Bank and FIRST surveys are proving to be rich sources of new BL Lacs. We will discuss the…