Long-term optical color behavior of a sample of blazars

We report on the optical color variability of a sample of 24 blazars, consisting of nine flat spectrum radio quasars(FSRQs) and 15 BL Lacertae objects(BL Lacs), on timescales of years using simultaneous V-and R-band observations observed by the Kanata telescope at Higashi-Hiroshima Observatory.The correlations between color indices V-R and magnitudes reveal that 11 BL Lacs and one FSRQ exhibited significant(i.e., r 0.2 and P 0.01) bluer-when-brighter(BWB) trend and two FSRQs followed the redder-when-brighter(RWB) tend, indicating a possibility that the BWB chromatic trend is dominant for BL Lacs and the RWB trend is especially found in FSRQs, which has been presented occasionally in different samples of blazars.The superpositions of the red emission component from the Doppler-boosted relativistic jet and the blue component arising from the accretion disk might be a possible interpretation for the long-term color behaviors.     

Mid-infrared variability of blazars: a view from NEOWISE survey

We studied mid-infrared (MIR) variability of a large sample of blazars detected by LAT/Fermi (called Fermi-detected blazars) and those not detected by LAT/Fermi (called non-Fermi-detected blazars) in order to investigate any difference in the variability characteristics between them as well as between FSRQs and BL Lacs. Making use of NEOWISE archival data from October 2013 to December 2017, we constructed the long-term 3.4 μm and 4.6 μm light curves of 2,573 blazars and computed their intrinsic variability amplitudes, \(\varPsi \). As a result, we found that (1) Fermi-detected blazars show higher \(\varPsi \) than non-Fermi-detected blazars; (2) Fermi-detected FSRQs show higher \(\varPsi \) than non-Fermi-detected FSRQs; (3) Fermi-detected BL Lacs show higher \(\varPsi \) than non-Fermi-detected BL Lacs; (4) FSRQs show higher \(\varPsi \) than BL Lacs. By comparing their distributions of “\(\mathit{var}\_\mathit{flg}\)” in the ALLWISE database, we also found that Fermi-detected blazars/FSRQs/BL Lacs tend to be more variable than non-Fermi-detected blazars/FSRQs/BL Lacs. For the Fermi-detected blazars, there are highly significant correlations between the flux densities and spectral indices in the MIR and gamma-ray bands. These results imply that the activity in the two bands is connected. Our results are consistent with several earlier results on the differences between Fermi-detected blazars and non-Fermi-detected blazars. We also give some possible explanations about the statistical results.     

Fermi耀变体的gamma射线多波段辐射与射电辐射的关系

从Fermi 3期源表(3FGL)中选择了一个含935个耀变体(blazar)的样本, 包括415个平谱射电源(Flat Spectrum Radio Quasar, FSRQ), 520个蝎虎天体(BL Lac object, BL Lac), 其中高同步峰BL Lac (HBL) 233个, 中同步峰BL Lac (IBL) 144个, 低同步峰BL Lac (LBL) 143个. 研究了总样本、FSRQ、BL Lac及其子类HBL、LBL的射电1.4GHz 与gamma射线在0.1、0.3、1、3、10GeV处辐射流量密度的关系. 结果显示: 所有样本的射电1.4GHz与5个波段gamma射线的辐射流量都有强相关, 相关系数在0.48--0.81之间, 机会概率均小于$10^{-4; 对于不同的样本相关系数随着gamma射线辐射频率的变化有不同的变化趋势, 所有样本在5个波段的相关系数平均值随gamma射线频率的增加而减小. 该结果暗示, 随着频率的升高, blazar的gamma射线辐射主导机制在发生变化, 在相同频率处, 不同类型天体的辐射主导机制存在差异; HBL的gamma射线辐射主要由同步自康普顿主导, 而LBL的其他成份比HBL的更复杂; FSRQ的gamma射线起源较BL Lac的复杂.     

Core-dominance parameter and polarization for Fermi blazars

We study core-dominance parameter R and polarization for blazars detected by Fermi LAT. Our results are as follows. (i) The blazars detected by Fermi LAT have higher average R and polarizations than those not detected by Fermi LAT. (ii) Compared with BL Lacs, flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) have lower average R and the ratio of beamed luminosity to the unbeamed luminosity f. (iii) In the diagram of polarization-Doppler factor relations, FSRQs may have p=α+3 and BL Lacs for p=α+2. These results suggest that the high optical polarization is correlated to the beaming effect. High polarization and core-dominance parameters are significantly more common among the LAT sources. The difference in polarization and core-dominance parameters between FSRQs and BL Lacs are due to the difference in their beaming effects and jet model.     

The contribution of unresolved radio-loud AGN to the extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray background

We present a calculation of the blazar contribution to the extragalactic diffuse γ -ray background (EGRB) in the EGRET energy range. Our model is based on inverse-Compton scattering as the dominant γ -ray production process in the jets of flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and BL Lac objects, and on the unification scheme of radio-loud AGN. According to this picture, blazars represent the beamed fraction of the Fanaroff–Riley radio galaxies (FR galaxies).
The observed log  N –log  S distribution and redshift distribution of both FSRQs and BL Lacs constrain our model. Depending slightly on the evolutionary behaviour of blazars, we find that unresolved AGN underproduce the intensity of the extragalactic background radiation. With our model only 20–40 per cent of the extragalactic background emission can be explained by unresolved blazars if we integrate to a maximum redshift of Z _max=3. For Z _max=5, blazars could account for 40–80 per cent of the EGRB. Roughly 70–90 per cent of the AGN contribution to the EGRB would result from BL Lacs. While the systematic uncertainties in our estimate for the FSRQ contribution appear small, in the case of BL Lacs our model parameters are not consistent with the results from studies in other wavelength regimes, and therefore may have larger systematic uncertainties. Thus we end up with two possibilities, depending on whether we underpredict or overpredict the BL Lac contribution: either unresolved AGN cannot account for the entire EGRB, or unresolved BL Lacs produce the observed background.
We predict a significant flattening of the γ -ray log  N –log  S function in the next two decades of flux below the EGRET threshold.     

Correlation between X-ray and γ-ray for Fermi blazars

Using γ-ray band data detected by Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) and X-ray band data for 78 blazars, we find a medium correlation between X-ray flux and γ-ray flux in all states. A medium correlation is also found between X-ray (1 keV) mean spectral index α _x and γ-ray mean spectral index α _γ for BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs), and there is no correlation for Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs). From these results, we suggest that the most likely radiation mechanism for the high energy gamma-rays would be synchrotron self-Compton (SSC), and that the gamma-ray emission mechanism may be somewhat different for BL Lacs and FSRQs.     

Gamma-ray luminosity function of gamma-ray bright AGNs

Detection of γ-ray emissions from a class of active galactic nuclei (viz blazars),has been one of the important findings from the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO). However, their-γ-ray luminosity function has not been well determined. Few at-tempts have been made in earlier works, where BL Lacs and Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs) have been considered as a single source class. In this paper, we investigated the evolution and γ-ray luminosity function of FSRQs and BL Lacs separately. Our investi-gation indicates no evolution for BL Lacs, however FSRQs show significant evolution. Pure luminosity evolution is assumed for FSRQs and exponential and power law evolu-tion models are examined. Due to the small number of sources, the low luminosity end index of the luminosity function for FSRQs is constrained with an upper limit. BL Lac lu-minosity function shows no signature of break. As a consistency check, the model source distributions derived from these luminosity functions show no significant departure from the observed source distributions.     

一个耀变体样本在射电波段的Jurkevich周期分析

利用欧文斯谷射电天文台(Owens Valley Radio Observatory, OVRO) 15 GHz的观测数据,通过Jurkevich理论分析了78个耀变体样本的光变曲线,结果表明,射电源显示了显著的光变周期,范围为0.83–2.55 yr.另外,通过估算射电源光变的调制指数,发现蝎虎天体的调制指数较平谱射电类星体有更大的高斯分布峰值.     

Spectral Variability of FSRQs

The optical variability of 29 flat spectrum radio quasars in SDSS Stripe 82 region are investigated by using DR7 released multi-epoch data. All FSRQs show variations with overall amplitude ranging from 0.24 mag to 3.46 mag in different sources. About half of FSRQs show a bluer-when-brighter trend, which is commonly observed for blazars. However, only one source shows a redder-when-brighter trend, which implies it is rare in FSRQs. In this source, the thermal emission may be responsible for the spectral behaviour.     

Noise characteristics of full-disc helioseismic observations made by resonant scattering spectrometers

We report monitoring observations of 20 high-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGN), 12 of which are radio-quiet quasars (RQQs). Intranight optical variability (INOV) was detected for 13 of the 20 objects, including 5 RQQs. The variations are distinctly stronger and more frequent for blazars than for the other AGN classes. By combining these data with results obtained earlier in our programme, we have formed an enlarged sample consisting of 9 BL Lacs, 19 RQQs and 11 lobe-dominated radio-loud quasars (RLQs). The moderate level of rapid optical variability found for both RQQs and radio lobe-dominated quasars (LDQs) argues against a direct link between INOV and radio loudness. We supplemented the present observations of 3 BL Lacs with additional data from the literature. In this extended sample of 12 well observed BL Lacs, stronger INOV is found for the EGRET detected subset.     

The disk-jet connection of Fermi 2LAC blazars

In this article, an estimator of the radiative power for blazars is proposed and is used in the study of the link between the accretion disk power and jet power. The results lend support to the disk-jet symbiosis. Since the blazars are strongly beamed sources, our results suggest that the Doppler enhancement of the sources needs to be removed to obtain physically reasonable results in the disk-jet connection study. The results after de-beaming suggest that FSRQs are accreting in the radiatively efficient regime, while the BL Lac population shows a flatter dependence between jet power and disk power, possibly due to a mixture of sources in the radiatively efficient (the broad lined BL Lacs) and inefficient (the bulk of the BL Lac population) regimes.     

Study of the relation between the jet and accretion-disk emission in Blazars using RATAN-600 multifrequency data

We study the correlation between the emission from the broad-line region (BLR) and the emission in other wavelength ranges (from radio to x-ray) for the sample of 37 blazars (25 flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and 10 BLLac blazars). Studying the relation between luminosities in various wavebands and the BLR luminosity is an effective method to examine the connection between the accretion rate and the luminosity of the jet.We used simultaneous RATAN-600measurements of blazar flux densities at six frequencies: 1.1, 2.3, 4.8, 7.7, 11.2, and 21.7 GHz. The observational data from other bands was taken from the literature. To determine the effect produced by the state of the object on the correlation, for the radio data we used the measurements obtained with the RATAN-600 in two states-namely, the maximum and minimum flux density values.We show that at some frequencies of the radio band, there exists a correlation of emission with the emission in the BLR for two types of blazars. In the FSRQ and BL Lac blazars, the correlation between the flux from the BLR and the flux in the radio band is indistinguishable in all cases, except for the case when a strong flux density variation was considered for the BL Lac-type of blazars (tens of percent). At the same time, the levels of significance for BL Lac (at certain frequencies p is worse than 0.05) in the active state indicate only the probable presence of connection. On the example of the sample, we show that the variability of emission significantly affects the level of correlation. Our results are consistent with the theoretical predictions about the close relationship of the accretion disk and the jet in blazars.     

The broadband spectral energy distributions of SDSS blazars

We compiled the radio, optical and X-ray data of blazars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database, and presented the distribution of luminosities and broadband spectral indices. The distribution of luminosities shows that the averaged luminosity of flat spectrum radio quasars(FSRQs) is larger than that of BL Lacertae(BL Lac) objects. On the other hand, the broadband spectral energy distribution reveals that FSRQs and low energy peaked BL Lac objects have similar spectral properties,but high energy peaked BL Lac objects have a distinct spectral property. This may be due to the fact that different subclasses of blazars have different intrinsic environments and are at different cooling levels. Even so, a unified scheme is also revealed from the color-color diagram, which hints that there are similar physical processes operating in all objects under a range of intrinsic physical conditions or beaming parameters.     

A unifying view of the spectral energy distributions of blazars

We collect data at well-sampled frequencies from the radio to the γ-ray range for the following three complete samples of blazars: the Slew survey, the 1-Jy samples of BL Lacs and the 2-Jy sample of flat-spectrum radio-loud quasars (FSRQs). The fraction of objects detected in γ-rays ( E  ≳ 100 MeV) is ∼ 17, 26 and 40 per cent in the three samples respectively. Except for the Slew survey sample, γ-ray detected sources do not differ either from other sources in each sample, or from all the γ-ray detected sources, in terms of the distributions of redshift, radio and X-ray luminosities or of the broad-band spectral indices (radio to optical and radio to X-ray). We compute average spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from radio to γ-rays for each complete sample and for groups of blazars binned according to radio luminosity, irrespective of the original classification as BL Lac or FSRQ. The resulting SEDs show a remarkable continuity in that (i) the first peak occurs in different frequency ranges for different samples/luminosity classes, with most luminous sources peaking at lower frequencies; (ii) the peak frequency of the γ-ray component correlates with the peak frequency of the lower energy one; (iii) the luminosity ratio between the high and low frequency components increases with bolometric luminosity. The continuity of properties among different classes of sources and the systematic trends of the SEDs as a function of luminosity favour a unified view of the blazar phenomenon: a single parameter, related to luminosity, seems to govern the physical properties and radiation mechanisms in the relativistic jets present in BL Lac objects as well as in FSRQs. The general implications of this unified scheme are discussed while a detailed theoretical analysis, based on fitting continuum models to the individual spectra of most γ-ray blazars, is presented in a separate paper.     

The optical spectral slope variability of 17 blazars

Many quasi-simultaneous optical observations of 17 blazars are obtained from previous papers published over the last 19 years in order to investigate the spectral slope variability and understand the radiation mechanism of blazars. The long-period dereddened optical spectral slopes are calculated. We analyse the average spectral slope distribution, which suggests that the spectra of flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and high energy peaked BL Lac objects (HBLs) are probably deformed by other emission components. The average spectral slopes of low energy peaked BL Lac objects(LBLs), which scatter around 1.5, show a good accordance with the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) loss-dominated model. We present and discuss the variability between the spectral slope and optical luminosity. The spectra of all HBLs and LBLs get flatter when they turn brighter, while for FSRQs this trend does not exist or may even be reversed. This phenomenon may imply that there is a thermal contribution to the optical spectrum for FSRQs. For the FSRQ 1156+295, there is a hint that the slope gets flatter at both the brightest and faintest states. Our result shows that three subclasses locate in different regions in the pattern of slope variability indicator versus average spectral slope. The relativistic jet mechanism is supported by the significant correlation between the optical Doppler factor and the average spectral slope.     

Radio Observation of the 11-Month Fermi-AGN at Urumqi Observatory

We carry out flux observation at 5 GHz for 124 sources from the ‘clean’ sample of Fermi catalog 1LAC (The First LAT AGN Catalog) with Urumqi 25 m telescope. We find that it is obvious that there is a correlation between the γ-ray and the radio flux density for blazars. For the subclasses, the correlation for FSRQs is strong, but the correlation for BL Lacs is weak.     

Characteristics of the Radiation from Blazars

We have collected short-timescale variability data of 47 blazars, estimated the masses of their central black holes and the sizes of their radiation regions at different wavebands, and made a statistical analysis on the calculated results. It is found that the central black hole mass of blazars falls in the range 10⁷M to 10¹⁰M, and that the BL Lac objects and the flat-spectrum radio quasars have very different central black hole masses (the latter being generally greater), while they have very similar sizes of radiation regions in the infrared and γ-ray wavebands. Also, using the collected bolometric luminosity data, we have analyzed the relationship between the bolometric luminosity of blazars and their short-timescale variability, and it is concluded that the radiations from the radio-selected BL Lac objects (RBLs) and flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) are strongly beam-confined, while the effect of relativistic beaming is relatively small for the X-ray-selected BL Lac objects (XBLs).     

Superluminal Motion and Polarization in Blazars

A relativistic beaming model has been successfully used to explain the observed properties of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). In this model there are two emission components, a boosted one and an unbeamed one, shown up in the radio band as the core and lobe components. The luminosity ratio of the core to the lobe is denned as the core-dominance parameter (R = LCore/LLobe). The de-beamed radio luminosity (Ldbjet) in the jet is assumed to be proportional to the unbeamedluminosity (Lub) in the co-moving frame, i.e., f = Ldbjet/Lub, and f is determined in ourprevious paper. We further discuss the relationship between BL Lacertae objects (BLs) and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), which are subclasses of blazars with different degrees of polarization, using the calculated values of the ratio f for a sample of superluminal blazars. We found 1) that the BLs show smaller averaged Doppler factors and Lorentz factors, larger viewing angles and higher core-dominance parameters than do the FSRQs, and 2) that in th     

Statistical Properties of a Blazar Sample and Comparison of HBLs, LBLs and FSRQs

Making use of the 2MASS Data Release, we have searched for near-infrared (JHK) counterparts to 268 blazars from Donato et al. and obtained 238 counterparts within 5" in the area covered by 2MASS. It provides us a sample with infrared data several times larger than the previous one of the same kind. Based on our sample and the sample by Donato et al., we have compared in detail the properties of HBLs, LBLs and FSRQs from five aspects and found that HBLs are significantly different from LBLs and FSRQs while LBLs are not obviously different from FSRQs. Our results strongly support the division of BL Lac objects into the high-frequency peaked (HBL) and low-frequency peaked (LBL) objects introduced by Padovani & Giommi and show that HBLs and LBLs are two kinds of blazar having different physical properties.     

耀变体亮温度与黑洞喷流能量的相关性讨论

耀变体(Blazars)的亮温度与黑洞喷流能量和吸积率有重要关系。搜集了53个耀变体源样本,包括22个蝎虎天体(BL Lacs)和31个平谱射电类星体(Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars,FSRQs),研究了耀变体亮温度与黑洞喷流能量的分布,并对子类中亮温度与黑洞喷流能量的相关性进行了讨论。研究结果表明:(1)蝎虎天体与平谱射电类星体的亮温度与黑洞喷流能量的分布存在明显差异,这可能与蝎虎天体与平谱射电类星体的内禀性质有关,也可能与其有无发射线及发射线的强弱有关;(2)蝎虎天体的亮温度与黑洞喷流能量之间的相关性较强,亮温度可以在一定程度上描述蝎虎天体的黑洞喷流能量,亮温度大的蝎虎天体喷流携带的能量也较大;(3)平谱射电类星体的亮温度与黑洞喷流能量之间有弱相关性,平谱射电类星体的亮温度不能清楚地描述黑洞喷流能量,黑洞喷流能量受亮温度影响较小,平谱射电类星体的黑洞喷流能量可能受到其他因素的影响;(4)耀变体的亮温度与黑洞吸积率之间有弱的相关性。