Related papers: Demographics of Blazars
Since 2002, the number of detected blazars at E_\gamma > 100 GeV has more than doubled. I study all currently known BL Lac-type objects with published energy spectra. Their intrinsic energy spectra are reconstructed by removing…
We describe a uniform all-sky survey of bright blazars, selected primarily by their flat radio spectra, that is designed to provide a large catalog of likely gamma-ray AGN. The defined sample has 1625 targets with radio and X-ray properties…
We discuss about how the relative flux densities among the images of gravitationally-lensed active galactic nuclei, AGN, can be used to study the intrinsic AGN variability with high accuracy. Multi-frequency monitoring observations of…
Relativistic jets of active galactic nuclei have been known to exist for 100 years. Blazars with their jet pointing close to our line of sight are some of the most variable and extreme objects in the universe, showing emission from radio to…
The present status and understanding of the "spectral sequence" of blazars is discussed in the perspective of the upcoming GLAST launch. The vast improvement in sensitivity will allow to i) determine more objectively the "average" gamma-ray…
Blazars dominate the extragalactic $\gamma$-ray sky and show pronounced flares. Using public Fermi-LAT light curves for 732 blazars with secure redshifts, I implement an automated pipeline to identify and characterize $\gamma$-ray bursts…
At redshift larger than 3 there is a disagreement between the number of blazars (whose jet is pointing at us) and the number of expected parents (whose jet is pointing elsewhere). Now we strengthen this claim because (i) the number of…
The aim of this white paper is to discuss the observing strategies for the LSST Wide-Fast-Deep that would improve the study of blazars (emission variability, census, environment) and Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). For blazars, these include the…
In our review of the blazar phenomenon, we discuss blazar models, with a focus on the following issues: sub-parsec jets and their environment; energy dissipation and particle acceleration; and radiative processes.
Blazars are thought to emit highly-collimated outflows, so-called jets. By their close alignment to our line of sight, relativistic beaming effects enable us to observe these jets over the whole electromagnetic spectrum up to TeV energies,…
Blazars are highly variable active galactic nuclei which emit radiation at all wavelengths from radio to gamma-rays. Polarized radiation from blazars is one key piece of evidence for synchrotron radiation at low energies and it also varies…
Blazars are the most common sources of $\gamma$-ray photons in the extragalactic sky. Their $\gamma$-ray light curves are characterized by bright flaring episodes, similarly to what is observed at longer wavelengths. These gamma-ray bursts…
Blazars, a subset of powerful active galactic nuclei, feature relativistic jets that shine in a broadband electromagnetic radiation, e. g. from radio to TeV emission. Here I present the results of the studies that explore gamma-ray and…
Does the "blazar sequence" exist, or is it a result of a selection effect, due to the difficulty in measuring the redshifts of blazars with both high synchrotron peak frequencies (\gtrsim 10^{15} Hz) and luminosities (\gtrsim 10^{46} erg…
After the discovery of powerful relativistic jets from Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies, and the understanding of their similarity with those of blazars, a problem of terminology was born. The word blazar is today associated to BL Lac Objects…
Blazars exhibit multiwavelength variability, a phenomenon whose underlying mechanisms remain elusive. This study investigates the origin of such variability through leptonic blazar emission simulations, focusing on stochastic fluctuations…
This paper presents a new complete and well defined sample of Flat Spectrum Radio Sources (FSRS) selected from the CLASS survey with the further constraint of a bright (mag<17.5) optical counterpart. The sample has been designed to produce…
We propose a scenario where blazars are classified as flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), BL Lacs, low synchrotron, or high synchrotron peaked objects according to a varying mix of the Doppler boosted radiation from the jet, the emission…
Recent progress in our knowledge of stellar populations in local dwarf spheroidal galaxies is briefly discussed. A few results are summarized including wide field observations of stellar populations and their spatial variations, studies of…
Simultaneous observations of blazars in different spectral regimes imply that the amplitude of variability depends on the observational band. Both in the low energy spectral component and in the high energy spectral component, the amplitude…