Related papers: Are BL Lacertae Objects Beamed QSO Remnants?
We propose a new physical model for the unification of all Blazars. The blazar phenomenology can be accounted for by a sequence in the source power and intensity of the diffuse radiation field surrounding the relativistic jet. This…
We report on the optical properties of a sample of 30 BL Lac host galaxies in the redshift range $0.03<z<0.2$, as derived from HST observations. All galaxies are fully resolved in the WFPC2 (F702W filter) images, allowing a quantitative…
We present far-UV HST/COS spectra of four nearby BL Lac Objects. BL Lac spectra are dominated by a smooth, power-law continuum which arises in a relativistic jet. However, the spectra are not necessarily featureless; weak, broad- and/or…
Quasars trace the most massive structures at high redshifts and their presence may influence the evolution of the massive host galaxies. We study the extended Lyman alpha emission line regions (EELRs) around seven bright, mostly radio-quiet…
In the frame of unification schemes for radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs), FR I radio galaxies are believed to be BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects with the relativistic jet misaligned to our line of sight, and FR II radio galaxies…
We have recently proposed a new simplified scenario where blazars are classified as flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) or BL Lacs according to the prescriptions of unified schemes, and to a varying combination of Doppler boosted radiation…
We identify a sample of 74 high-redshift quasars (z>3) with weak emission lines from the Fifth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and present infrared, optical, and radio observations of a subsample of four objects at z>4. These…
The radio-loud/radio-quiet (RL/RQ) dichotomy in quasars is still an open question. Although it is thought that accretion onto supermassive black holes in the centre the host galaxies of quasars is responsible for some radio continuum…
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,…
Typical blazars seem to be associated with FR I and FR II radio galaxies and radio-loud quasars. However, what happens at lower powers? Do blazars exist in low-luminosity AGN or do they exist in radio-quiet AGN? A recent detection of…
We argue that the "Little Red Dots" (LRDs) discovered with the James Webb Space Telescope are quasi-stars in their late stages of evolution. Quasi-stars are hypothetical objects predicted to form following the core collapse of supermassive…
We propose a unified classification for BL Lac objects (BLs), focusing on the synchrotron peak frequency of the spectral energy distribution. The unification scheme is based on the angle Theta that describes the orientation of the…
The radiative and jet power in active galactic nuclei is generated by accretion of material on to supermassive galactic-centre black holes. For quasars, where the radiative power is by definition very high, objects with high radio…
It has been inferred from large unbiased samples that $10\%$-$15\%$ of all quasars are radio-loud (RL). Using the quasar catalog from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we show that the radio-loud fraction (RLF) for high broad line (HBL)…
We present VLA and first-epoch VLBA observations that are part of a program to study the parsec-scale radio structure of a sample of fifteen high-energy-peaked BL Lacs (HBLs). The sample was chosen to span the range of logarithmic X-ray to…
The uncharted territory of the high-redshift ($z\gtrsim3$) Universe holds the key to understand the evolution of quasars. In an attempt to identify the most extreme members of the quasar population, i.e., blazars, we have carried out a…
The observation that the extremely broad, blueshifted absorption troughs which characterize broad absorption line quasars (BALQs) occur exclusively in radio-quiet quasars (RQQs) suggests that this class of active galactic nuclei (AGN) may…
The kinematics of jets in active galactic nuclei (QSOs, BL Lacs, Radio Galaxies and Empty Field objects) on parsec scales is being studied with Very Long Baseline Array observations at 15 GHz of a sample of more than 170 radio sources. More…
Aims: Intranight variation (or microvariation) is a common phenomenon of radio-loud BL Lac objects. However, it is not clear whether the recently found radio-quiet BL Lac objects have the same properties. The occurrence rate of intranight…
The classical diagrams of radio loudness and jet power as a function of mass and accretion rate of the central spacetime singularity in active galactic nuclei are reanalyzed by including the data of the recently discovered powerful…