Photopolarimetry of BL Lac

This paper presents results of our monitoring of BL Lac at the 2.56 m Nordic Optical Telescope in La Palma and at the 0.91 m telescope at National Astronomical Observatory in Dodaira, Japan. On La Palma we used aUBVRI-photopolarimeter which gives truly simultaneous observations in all five colour bands. At Dodaira we used a photopolarimeter which gives simultaneously photometry atB, V andR-bands and polarimetry atV-band. We have observations of BL Lac during flare behaviour and during these times we have observed a clear rotation of the polarization position angle. During these flares the polarization level has also been strongly variable and the object has lost its preferred direction of the polarization position angle. The reason for this behaviour remains still unclear, but there are two possible explanations: shocks in the helical magnetic field in the jet pointing nearly towards us or polarized synchrotron flares rotating within the accretion disk (seen nearly face on) of the supermassive central black hole.     

Separation of radiation components and estimates of the red shifts of the BL Lac objects OQ 530 and OI 090.4 on the basis of photometric data

Leningrad State University. Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 231–240, September–October, 1989.     

The distance of BL Lac

An upper limit on the distance of BL Lac is derived assuming that (a) the optical continuum is synchrotron radiation produced by relativistic electrons; (b) the magnetic field has the value appropriate for equipartition of energy; (c) the optical object lies within the radio component. The upper limit obtained depends on the mechanism of electron production. Limits are also obtained on the magnetic field and mass of BL Lac, and the possibility that it may be a galaxy in the process of formation is explored.     

Spectral energy distributions of FR I nuclei and the FR I/BL Lac unifying model

We consider archival ROSAT and Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) observations of five FR I radio galaxies and isolate their nuclear emission from that of the host galaxy. This enables us to determine the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of their nuclei spanning the region from the radio to the X-ray band. They cannot be described as single power laws, but require the presence of an emission peak located between the infrared (IR) and soft X-ray band. We found consistency between the SED peak position and the values of the broad-band spectral indices of radio galaxies compared with those of BL Lacs, once the effects of beaming are properly taken into account. FR I SEDs are thus qualitatively similar to those of BL Lacs, supporting the identification of FR I sources as their misoriented counterparts. No dependence of the shape of the SED on the FR I orientation is found.     

Polarimetric and photometric observations of long-period variables

Observations of 35 long-period variables have been done mainly at the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory during the last years. A polarimetric monitoring of 34 stars has been carried out with simultaneous photometric measurements for some of them. Photometric data in the UBVR bands have been obtained for the star Y Ori, which is the faintest one. The results show that the degree of light polarization is correlated with the period and brightness of these stars. This indicates that the degree of light polarization is connected with the mass loss as well. Finally the photoelectric observations of the stars Y Ori, T Cep, R Gem, and R Boo show a short-term increase of their brightness in the decreasing branch of their light curves. The measured (U-B) or (B-V) colors of detected rapid variations are bluer than the colors of the star measured before these events. It is supposed that the change of polarization with time, the relatively blue colors of miras near their minimum brightness, and the colors of detected rapid variations may be explained by the influence of a invisible blue companion, as in the case of the star R Aqr. Published in Astrofizika, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 341–350, July–September, 1999.     

Polarimetric and photometric observations of the star m cephei

The results of photometric and polarimetric observations of the star Μ Cep at Byurakan Observatory are presented. Some interesting correlations between the parameters of the star’s brightness variation and the degree of polarization of the light are obtained. It is suggested that the recorded rapid changes in the degree of polarization may result from Μ Cep being a double star. Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 219-228, April–June, 2000.     

BL Lac Objects and Unified Model

1　ＤｉｆｆｅｒｅｎｃｅａｎｄＵｎｉｔｙｏｆＢＬＬａｃＯｂｊｅｃｔｓ1 1　ＴｈｅＤｉｆｆｅｒｅｎｃｅｓａｎｄＥｘｐｌａｎａｔｉｏｎｂｅｔｗｅｅｎＲＢＬｓａｎｄＸＢＬｓ1 )ＲＢＬｓｄｏｎｏｔｆｉｔｔｈｅＨｕｂｂｌｅｄｉａｇｒａｍｓｏｗｅｌｌａｓｄｏＸＢＬｓ ;2 )ＲＢＬｓｄｏｎｏｔｓｈｏｗａｎｙｍｕｌｔｉｗａｖｅｌｅｎｇｔｈｃｏｒｒｅｌａｔｉｏｎａｓｄｏＸＢＬｓ;3)ＲＢＬｓｈａｖｅｈｉｇｈｅｒｒａｄｉｏａｎｄｏｐｔｉｃａｌｌｕｍｉｎｏｓｉｔｉｅｓｔｈａｎｄｏＸＢＬｓｂｕｔｔｈｅｙｂｏｔｈｈａｖｅａｌｍｏ…     

BL Lac objects and acceleration model

In this paper, the acceleration model is applied to data from RBLs (Radio Selected BL Lac objects). The corrected data from RBLs are found to be nearly the same as those from XBLs (X-Ray Selected BL Lac objects), the expected result, that points ofU - B, B - V of XBLs and RBLs occupy the same region in the (B - V)-(U - B) diagram has been obtained, and the Radio Doppler factors obtained by us are highly consistent with those found by others.     

Cosmological implications of BL Lac objects

It has become clear in recent years that relativistic beaming is a good explanation for the BL Lac phenomenon. Of studies based on the relativistic beaming model of BL Lac objects, we note that the orientation of jet's axis to the line-of-sight is very small and, therefore, the observed flux emitted from a rapidly moving source is orders of magnitude higher than the flux in its rest-frame:F _obs = ^{3 +} F _intr, where is the bulk relativistic Doppler factor. Then the observed apparent magnitudem _v must be corrected for this effect. For our 39 samples, the corrected apparent magnitudem _v ^corr and logZ have a good correlation.     

Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR): Polarimetric and photometric studies

We present the results of polarimetric and photometric observations of dynamically new comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) at phase angles from 6° to 26°. During the observations, the comet was at a distance of 2.7–1.3 AU from the Sun and 1.7–2.0 AU from the Earth. The aperture polarimetry was made with the 2.6-m Shain telescope and the 1.25-m AZT-11 telescope of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and with the 0.7-m telescope of the Astronomical Institute of the Kharkiv National University during the period from November 21, 2003, to February 21, 2004. The wideband UBVRI and WRC (λ7228/1142 Å) filters and the narrowband GC (λ5260/56 Å) filter were used. The photometric observations of the comet were carried out on February 21, 2004, with narrowband filters isolated the BC (λ4845/65 Å) and RC (λ6840/90 Å) continuum and the C₂ emission (λ5140/90 Å). The phase-angle dependence of linear polarization of the comet has been obtained, and its parameters, such as the minimal polarization P _min = ?1.63%, the phase angle of the minimal polarization α_min = 10.6°, the inversion angle α_inv = 22.7°, and the slope of the phase curve at the inversion angle h = 0.24% per degree, were found. From the photometric observations, the following quantities have been obtained: the column density of molecules C₂ in the line of sight logN (C₂) = ?9.15 mol/cm² and their production rate log Q (C₂) = 27.11 mol/s, the spectral gradient of reflectivity for the dust S′(BC, RC) ≈ 3%/1000 Å, and the dust production parameter Afρ equal to 371 and 273 cm for the blue and red continuum ranges, respectively. According to these results, the physical parameters of comet C/2002 T7 are close to the average characteristics of typical dusty comets.     

BL Lac天体的谱性质

研究了等离子体反应堆模型,统一解释活动星系核的辐射性质,特别是ＢＬＬａｃ天体的谱性质．具体的物理过程是:大量相对论电子从中心天体注入周围的等离子体反应堆中,通过同步辐射快速损失能量,同时这些电子同步吸收反应堆中不透明的光子,产生一个稳定、各向同性的幂律分布,其谱指数为γ＝３;然后,这些相对论电子通过等离子体反应堆的爆发或其表面扩散过程逃逸出来,产生低频的同步辐射;来自等离子体反应堆的高频辐射表现出快速的谱变化,即流量减小时谱变陡．另外,还详细分析了具有辐射损失和相对论电子注入的同步辐射源的性质．     

The BL Lac heart of Centaurus A

We have observed emission from the nucleus of the closest radio galaxy, Centaurus A, from the radio to the gamma-ray band. We construct, for the first time, its overall spectral energy distribution (SED) which appears to be intriguingly similar to those of blazars, showing two broad peaks located in the far-infrared band and at ∼0.1 MeV respectively. The whole nuclear emission of Centaurus A is successfully reproduced with a synchrotron self-Compton model. The estimated physical parameters of the emitting source are similar to those of BL Lacs, except for a much smaller beaming factor, as qualitatively expected when a relativistic jet is orientated at a large angle to the line of sight. These results represent strong evidence that Centaurus A is indeed a misoriented BL Lac, and provide strong support in favour of the unification scheme for low-luminosity radio-loud active galactic nuclei. Modelling of the SED of Centaurus A also provides further and independent indications of the presence of velocity structures in sub-parsec-scale jets.     

Optical Spectra Evolution of BL Lac Objects

Many quasi-simultaneous optical observations of nine BL Lac objects are obtained from literature. We study the relationship between the optical spectral index and the luminosity of BL Lac objects, and are tempted to exploit spectral evolution in the optical frequency ranges. Our results show that: (i) The optical spectra index of the low-frequency peaked BL Lac objects (LBLs) is steeper than the high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects (HBLs); (ii) The spectra tend to be softer when the source becomes brighter for LBLs and the intermediate BL Lac objects (IBLs) (i.e., bluer-when-brighter), and the spectra of HBLs does not vary when the brightness of HBLs changes. Possible explanations are briefly discussed for this phenomenon.     

The optical periodic analysis of BL Lac object AO 0235+164

BL Lac object AO 0235+164 is a well-known object. We collect a large number of effective observation in B, V, R and I band from historical literatures. The possible periods are analyzed by means of discrete correlation function (DCF) method, structure function (SF) method and Jurkevich (J-K) method. The results show that there are possible periodic variations of 2.63–2.66 years in B band, 2.79–2.84 years in V band, 2.57–2.87 years in R band, 2.62–2.88 years in I band, respectively.     

Comparison between TeV and non-TeV BL Lac Objects

BL Lacertae objects(BL Lacs) are the dominant population of Te V emitting blazars. In this work, we investigate whether there are any special observational properties associated with Te V sources.To do so, we will compare the observational properties of Te V detected BL Lacs(Te V BLs) with non-Te V detected BL Lac objects(non-Te V BLs). From the 3rd Fermi/LAT source catalog(3FGL), we can obtain662 BL Lacs, out of which 47 are Te V BLs and 615 are non-Te V BLs. Their multi-wavelength flux densities(FpR, FO, FX and Fγ), photon spectral indexes(α~(ph)_Xand α~(ph)_γ), and effective spectral indexes(α_(RO) and α_(OX))are compiled from the available literature. Then the luminosities(log ν L_R, log ν L_O, log ν L_X, log ν L_γ)are calculated. From comparisons, we find that Te V BLs are different from low synchrotron peaked BLs and intermediate synchrotron peaked BLs, but Te V BLs show similar properties to high synchrotron peaked(HSP) BLs. Therefore, we concentrated on a comparison between Te V HSP BLs and non-Te V HSP BLs.Analysis results suggest that Te V HSP BLs and non-Te V HSP BLs exhibit some differences in their αRO and αphγ, but their other properties are quite similar.