Related papers: A Physical Classification Scheme for Blazars
The recently published fourth Fermi Large Area Telescope source catalog (4FGL) reports 5065 gamma-ray sources in terms of direct observational gamma-ray properties. Among the sources, the largest population is the Active Galactic Nuclei…
Relativistic jets in AGN in general, and in blazars in particular, are the most energetic and among the most powerful astrophysical objects known so far. Their relativistic nature provides them with the ability to emit profusely at all…
We have made high-quality measurements of the polarization spectra of 13 FR II radio galaxies and taken polarization images for 11 of these with the Keck telescopes. Seven of the eight narrow-line radio galaxies (NLRG) are polarized, and…
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…
We use Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) to perform long-slit spectroscopic observations of 23 newly discovered radio-loud quasars (RLQs) at $2.7<z<3.3$. The sample consists of powerful AGN brighter than 200 mJy at 1.4 GHz and is…
In this study, we investigated the orientation model of Broad Absorption Line (BAL) quasars using a sample of sources that are common in Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release (DR)-16 quasar catalog and Very Large Array (VLA)-Faint…
We are leading a comprehensive multi-waveband monitoring program of 34 gamma-ray bright blazars designed to locate the emission regions of blazars from radio to gamma-ray frequencies. The "maps" are anchored by sequences of images in both…
Broad absorption line quasars (BAL QSOs) belong to a class of objects not well-understood as yet. Their UV spectra show BALs in the blue wings of the UV resonance lines, owing to ionized gas with outflow velocities up to 0.2 c. They can…
We present the results of a study on the 1.4 GHz kpc-scale radio emission in the complete flux density limited MOJAVE sample, comprising 135 radio-loud AGNs. While extended emission is detected in the majority of the sources, about 7% of…
A substantial fraction of quasars display broad absorption lines (BALs) in their rest-frame ultraviolet spectra. While the origin of BALs is thought to be related to the accretion disc wind, it remains unclear whether the observed ratio of…
Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can be divided into two major classes, namely radio loud and radio quiet AGNs. A small subset of the radio-loud AGNs is called blazars, which are believed to be unified with Fanaroff & Riley type I/II (FRI/II)…
We reevaluate 610 sources classified as Flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) in the 5th edition of the Roma-BZCAT. Optical spectra from SDSS DR16 confirm broad emission lines within $0.11 \leq z \leq 5.28$. To assess their blazar-like…
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…
Blazars are a subclass of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs), where the jet is aligned close to the line of sight. Blazars emission is dominated by non-thermal processes, where Doppler boosted radiation originates from a relativistic…
We present a catalog of radio-loud candidate gamma-ray emitting blazars with WISE mid-infrared colors similar to the colors of confirmed gamma-ray blazars. The catalog is assembled from WISE sources detected in all four WISE filters, with…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are now known to be strong gamma-ray emitters. After briefly describing AGN classification and the main ideas behind unified schemes, I summarize the main properties of blazars (that is BL Lacs and flat-spectrum…
Polarization measurements are presented for 52 radio-loud QSOs and BL Lac objects. For 9 highly polarized (p >3%) AGN, these are the first published polarization measurements. Of these 9, 7 are highly-polarized QSOs (HPQs), one is a BL Lac…
Studies of the most distant AGNs allow us to test our current understanding of the physics present in radio-jetted AGNs across a range of environments. The decrease in apparent luminosity with distance is the primary difficulty to overcome…
In a previous paper, we proposed a new method to select low-power BL Lacs (LPBLs) based on mid-infrared emission and flux contrast through the Ca II spectral break; that study led to the selection of a complete sample formed by 34 LPBLs…
High redshift blazars are an important class of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) that can provide an independent estimate of the supermassive black-hole mass function in high redshift radio-loud AGN without the bias due to absorption along the…