The Deep X-Ray Radio Blazar Survey (DXRBS) – II. New identifications

We have searched the archived, pointed ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter data for blazars by correlating the WGACAT X-ray data base with several publicly available radio catalogues, restricting our candidate list to serendipitous X-ray sources with a flat radio spectrum ( α _r≤0.70, where S _ν ∝ ν ^{− α} ). This makes up the Deep X-ray Radio Blazar Survey (DXRBS). Here we present new identifications and spectra for 106 sources, including 86 radio-loud quasars, 11 BL Lacertae objects, and nine narrow-line radio galaxies. Together with our previously published objects and already-known sources, our sample now contains 298 identified objects: 234 radio-loud quasars [181 flat-spectrum quasars: FSRQ ( α _r≤0.50) and 53 steep-spectrum quasars: SSRQ], 36 BL Lacs and 28 narrow-line radio galaxies. Redshift information is available for 96 per cent of these. Thus our selection technique is ∼90 per cent efficient at finding radio-loud quasars and BL Lacs. Reaching 5-GHz radio fluxes ∼50 mJy and 0.1–2.0 keV X-ray fluxes a few ×10⁻¹⁴ erg cm⁻² s⁻¹, DXRBS is the faintest and largest flat-spectrum radio sample with nearly complete (∼85 per cent) identification. We review the properties of the DXRBS blazar sample, including redshift distribution and coverage of the X-ray-radio–power plane for quasars and BL Lacs. Additionally, we touch upon the expanded multiwavelength view of blazars provided by DXRBS. By sampling for the first time the faint end of the radio and X-ray luminosity functions, this sample will allow us to investigate the blazar phenomenon and the validity of unified schemes down to relatively low powers.     

A New Population of Radio Quasars

We present a new population of radio quasars whose X-ray band, unlike previously known sources which have (flat) inverse Compton radiation, is characterized by (steep) synchrotron emission, with a broad-band spectral energy distribution similar to that of BL Lacs with high energy synchrotron peaks. We discuss how this new class was discovered, the class properties, and the implications of its existence for our understanding of jets and active galactic nuclei in general.     

Intermediate BL Lac objects

The 200-mJy sample, defined by Marchã et al., contains about 60 nearby, northern, flat-spectrum radio sources. In particular, the sample has proved effective at finding nearby radio-selected BL Lac objects with radio luminosities comparable to those of X-ray-selected objects, and low-luminosity flat-spectrum weak emission-line radio galaxies (WLRGs). The 200-mJy sample contains 23 BL Lac objects (including 6 BL Lac candidates) and 19 WLRGs. We will refer to these subsamples as the 200-mJy BL Lac sample and the 200-mJy WLRG sample, respectively. We have started a systematic analysis of the morphological pc-scale properties of the 200-mJy radio sources using VLBI observations.
This paper presents VLBI observations at 5 and 1.6 GHz of 14 BL Lac objects and WLRGs selected from the 200-mJy sample. The pc-scale morphology of these objects is briefly discussed. We derive the radio beaming parameters of the 200-mJy BL Lac objects and WLRGs and compare them with those of other BL Lac samples and with a sample of FR I radio galaxies. The overall broad-band radio, optical and X-ray properties of the 200-mJy BL Lac sample are discussed and compared with those of other BL Lac samples, radio- and X-ray-selected. We find that the 200-mJy BL Lac objects fill the gap between HBL and LBL objects in the colour–colour plot, and have intermediate α _XOX as expected in the spectral energy distribution unification scenario. Finally, we briefly discuss the role of the WLRGs.     

新近对耀变体(Blazar)的X射线观测

本文综述了ASCA ,RXTE ,BeppoSAX和XMM -NEWTON对TeV耀变体 (Blazar)X射线研究的最新进展。主要集中在X射线资料的时间和光谱分析的最重要的方面 ,包括功率谱密度 ,结构函数 ,带间时间延迟 ,同步峰值能量的漂移和谱演化。对这些新结果的物理意义也进行了简要讨论。     

Radio, optical and X-ray nuclei in nearby 3CRR radio galaxies

HST observations have shown that low-redshift 3CR radio galaxies often exhibit a point-like optical component positionally coincident with the GHz-frequency radio core. In this paper we discuss the correlation between the luminosities of the radio, optical and X-ray cores in these objects, and argue that all three components have a common origin at the base of the relativistic jets. In unified models, FR I radio galaxies should appear as dimmed, redshifted versions of BL Lac objects. We show that such models are consistent with the spectral energy distributions of the radio galaxies only if the nuclear X-ray emission in radio galaxies is inverse Compton in origin.     

ROSAT X-ray observations of 3CRR radio sources

Over half the 3CRR sample of radio galaxies and quasars has been observed in X-rays with ROSAT pointed observations, and we present results from these observations, discussing many of the sources in detail. The improved spatial resolution of ROSAT over earlier missions allows a better separation of the nuclear and extended components of the X-ray emission. We investigate the relationship between nuclear X-ray and core radio luminosity, and show that our results support a model in which every radio galaxy and quasar has a beamed nuclear soft X-ray component directly related to the radio core. We report evidence for rich cluster environments around several powerful quasars. These X-ray environments are comparable to those of high-redshift radio galaxies.     

BeppoSAX observations of 1-Jy BL Lacertae objects – I

We present new BeppoSAX observations of seven BL Lacertae objects selected from the 1-Jy sample plus one additional source. The collected data cover the energy range     (observer's frame), reaching ∼50 keV for one source (BL Lac). All sources characterized by a peak in their multifrequency spectra at infrared/optical energies (i.e., of the low-energy peaked BL Lac type, LBL) display a relatively flat     X-ray spectrum, which we interpret as inverse Compton emission. Four objects (two-thirds of the LBLs) show some evidence for a low-energy steepening, which is probably due to the synchrotron tail merging into the inverse Compton component around ∼     . If this were generally the case with LBLs, it would explain why the     ROSAT spectra of our sources are systematically steeper than the BeppoSAX ones     . The broad-band spectral energy distributions fully confirm this picture, and a synchrotron inverse Compton model allows us to derive the physical parameters (intrinsic power, magnetic field, etc.) of our sources. Combining our results with those obtained by BeppoSAX on BL Lacs covering a wide range of synchrotron peak frequency, ν _peak, we confirm and clarify the dependence of the X-ray spectral index on ν _peak originally found in ROSAT data.     

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.     

Analysis of λ = 6 cm VLBI polarization observations of a complete sample of northern BL Lacertae objects

The results of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) total intensity ( I ) and linear polarization ( P ) observations at     are presented for 10 radio bright BL Lacertae objects. These images complete first-epoch polarization observations for the 1-Jy sample of northern BL Lacertae objects defined by Kühr & Schmidt. Estimates of superluminal speeds are presented for several sources, bringing the total number of sources in the sample for which such estimates are available to 16. Second-epoch observations currently being reduced should yield speed estimates for VLBI features in essentially all the sources in the sample. The jet magnetic fields of these BL Lacertae objects are usually transverse to the local jet direction, but a sizeable minority (about 30 per cent) have VLBI jet components with longitudinal magnetic fields. This may suggest that the conditions in the VLBI jets of BL Lacertae objects are favourable for the formation of relativistic shocks; alternatively, it may be that the toroidal component of the intrinsic jet magnetic field is characteristically dominant in these sources.     

Variations in the broad-band spectra of BL Lac objects: millimetre observations of an X-ray-selected sample

Observations at millimetre wavelengths are presented for a representative sample of 22 X-ray-selected BL Lac objects (XBLs). This sample comprises 19 high-energy cut-off BL Lac objects (HBLs), 1 low-energy cut-off BL Lac object (LBL) and 2 'intermediate' sources. Data for LBLs, which are mostly radio-selected BL Lac objects (RBLs), are taken from the literature. It is shown that the radio–millimetre spectral indices of HBLs     are slightly steeper than those of the LBLs     . A correlation exists between α _5–230 and 230 GHz luminosity. While this correlation could be an artefact of comparing two populations of BL Lac objects with intrinsically different radio properties, it is also consistent with the predictions of existing unified schemes that relate BL Lac objects to Fanaroff–Riley class I radio galaxies.
The HBLs have significantly flatter submillimetre–X-ray spectral indices     than the LBLs     although the two intermediate sources also have intermediate values of α _230–X∼−0.9. It is argued that this difference cannot be explained entirely by the viewing-angle hypothesis and requires a difference in physical-source parameters. The α _230–X values for the HBLs are close to the canonical value found for large samples of radio sources and thus suggest that synchrotron radiation is the mechanism that produces the X-ray emission. As suggested by Padovani & Giommi, the inverse-Compton mechanism is likely to dominate in the LBLs requiring the synchrotron spectra of these sources to steepen or cut off at lower frequencies than those of the HBLs.