Related papers: Revisiting the Blazar Main Sequence
We study the BL Lac objects detected in the one year all sky survey of the Fermi satellite, with a energy spectral slope alpha_gamma in the [0.1-100 GeV] band greater than 1.2. In the alpha_gamma vs gamma-ray luminosity plane, these BL Lacs…
Blazars, a subclass of radio-loud active galactic nuclei with relativistic jets aligned close to our line of sight, emit highly variable non-thermal radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum. The physical origin of their emission and…
Blazars' non-thermal emission shows rapid variability across all wavelengths, so spectral energy distributions (SEDs) built from quasi-simultaneous data are crucial for revealing the jets physical properties. In this work, we construct…
We re-examine the differences observed in the pc-scale magnetic field geometry of high and low optical polarization Quasars (HPQs, LPRQs) using the MOJAVE sample. We find that, as previously reported, HPQ jets exhibit predominantly…
We examine the fundamental plane of 91 Blazars which include FSRQs and BL Lacs with known X-ray luminosity ($L_{R}$), radio luminosity ($L_X$), and black hole mass measurements ($M$) to reflect the relationship between jet and accretion for…
With high-sensitivity kiloparsec-scale radio polarimetry, we can examine the jet-medium interactions and get a better understanding of the blazar divide in radio-loud (RL) AGN. We are analyzing the radio polarimetric observations with the…
The characteristic properties of blazars (rapid variability, strong polarization, high brightness) are widely attributed to a powerful relativistic jet oriented close to our line of sight. Despite the spectral energy distributions (SEDs)…
Blazars are conventionally classified into BL Lac objects and flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), commonly associated with radiatively inefficient and efficient accretion onto supermassive black holes, respectively. Increasing evidence,…
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.
A hyperaccreting stellar-mass black hole has been proposed as the candidate central engine of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The rich observations of GRBs by \textit{Fermi} and \textit{Swift} make it possible to constrain the central engine model…
We explore the viability of the unification of BL Lacs and FR I radio galaxies by comparing the core emission of radio galaxies with those of BL Lacs of similar extended radio power, taking advantage of the newly measured optical nuclear…
We present the first observations at medium-hard X-rays with ASCA in 1998 August--November of four Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs), characterized by unusually steep soft X-ray spectra (photon index, \Gamma_{0.2-2.4 keV} \sim 2-2.5), as…
The dissipation of energy flux in blazar jets plays a key role in the acceleration of relativistic particles. Two possibilities are commonly considered for the dissipation processes, magnetic reconnection -- possibly triggered by…
The particle acceleration of blazar jets is crucial to high-energy astrophysics, yet the acceleration mechanism division in blazar subclasses and the underlying nature of these mechanisms remain elusive. In this work, we utilized the…
The phenomenology of gamma-ray bright blazars can be accounted for by a sequence in the source power and intensity of the diffuse radiation field surrounding the relativistic jet. Correspondingly, the equilibrium particle distribution peaks…
In this paper we investigate the properties of a sample of six BL Lacs by fitting their spectra using our inhomogeneous jet model with an accelerating, magnetically dominated, parabolic base, which transitions to a slowly decelerating…
Our knowledge of the blazar surface densities and luminosity functions, which are fundamental parameters, relies still on samples at relatively high flux limits. As a result, our understanding of this rare class of active galactic nuclei is…
Blazars are usually classified following their synchrotron peak frequency ($\nu F(\nu)$ scale) as high, intermediate, low frequency peaked BL Lacs (HBLs, IBLs, LBLs), and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), or, according to their radio…
We consider internal shocks as the main dissipation mechanism responsible for the emission in blazars and show that it can satisfactorily account for the properties of all blazars. In particular, we extend previous work (Spada et al. 2001)…
A small subset of optically selected radio-quiet quasars showing weak or no emission lines may turn out to be the elusive radio-quiet BL Lac objects, or simply be radio-quiet QSOs with a still-forming/shielded broad line region (BLR). High…