J/ApJ/740/98 Synchrotron peak for blazars and radio galaxies (Meyer+, 2011)
From the blazar sequence to the blazar envelope: revisiting the relativistic jet
dichotomy in radio-loud active galactic nuclei.
Meyer E.T., Fossati G., Georganopoulos M., Lister M.L.
<Astrophys. J., 740, 98 (2011)>
=2011ApJ...740...98M 2011ApJ...740...98M
ADC_Keywords: Galaxies, radio ; Active gal. nuclei ; BL Lac objects ; Redshifts
Keywords: galaxies: active - galaxies: jets - galaxies: nuclei
Abstract:
We revisit the concept of a blazar sequence that relates the
synchrotron peak frequency (νpeak) in blazars with synchrotron
peak luminosity (Lpeak, in νLν) using a large sample of
radio-loud active galactic nuclei. We present observational evidence
that the blazar sequence is formed from two populations in the
synchrotron νpeak-Lpeak plane, each forming an upper edge to an
envelope of progressively misaligned blazars, and connecting to an
adjacent group of radio galaxies having jets viewed at much larger
angles to the line of sight. When binned by jet kinetic power (Lkin;
as measured through a scaling relationship with extended radio power),
we find that radio core dominance decreases with decreasing
synchrotron Lpeak, revealing that sources in the envelope are
generally more misaligned. We find population-based evidence of
velocity gradients in jets at low kinetic powers
(∼1042-1044.5erg/s), corresponding to Fanaroff-Riley (FR) I radio
galaxies and most BL Lac objects. These low jet power "weak-jet"
sources, thought to exhibit radiatively inefficient accretion, are
distinguished from the population of non-decelerating, low
synchrotron-peaking (LSP) blazars and FR II radio galaxies ("strong"
jets) which are thought to exhibit radiatively efficient accretion.
The two-population interpretation explains the apparent contradiction
of the existence of highly core-dominated, low-power blazars at both
low and high synchrotron peak frequencies, and further implies that
most intermediate synchrotron peak sources are not intermediate in
intrinsic jet power between LSP and high synchrotron-peaking (HSP)
sources, but are more misaligned versions of HSP sources with similar
jet powers.
Description:
In total, 216 sources have robust estimates of νpeak, Lpeak,
and L300; this set comprises the TEX (trusted extended) sample. Of
these, 129 have extended radio flux from SD (spectral decomposition),
87 were added using only VLA map data, and 90 have both a spectral and
VLA estimate. In Table 2, we list the sources which have a confirmed
synchrotron peak and extended power measurement (TEX sample).
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table2.dat 101 216 TEX combined blazar source list
table3.dat 83 41 Radio galaxies
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See also:
VII/241 : The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (Croom+ 2004)
J/ApJS/188/405 : Fermi-LAT first source catalog (1FGL) (Abdo+, 2010)
J/ApJ/710/764 : Extended radio emission in MOJAVE blazars (Kharb+, 2010)
J/ApJS/175/97 : CGRaBS: survey of γ-ray blazar (Healey+, 2008)
J/AJ/135/2453 : BL Lac objects from SDSS and FIRST (Plotkin+, 2008)
J/ApJS/171/376 : MOJAVE. III. VLA 1.4GHz images (Cooper+, 2007)
J/A+A/472/699 : ROXA: multi-frequency sample of blazars (Turriziani+, 2007)
J/A+A/470/787 : High energy peaked BL Lacs spectros. (Piranomonte+, 2007)
J/A+A/434/385 : X/radio data of high energy peaked BL Lacs (Giommi+, 2005)
J/MNRAS/348/937 : The CLASS blazar survey. III. (Caccianiga+, 2004)
J/A+A/401/927 : The HRX-BL Lac sample (Beckmann+, 2003)
J/A+A/399/469 : Parkes Quarter-Jy Flat-Spectrum Sample. II. (Hook+, 2003)
J/MNRAS/329/877 : The CLASS blazar survey. II. (Caccianiga+, 2002)
J/A+A/386/97 : The Parkes quarter-Jy flat-spectrum sample (Jackson+, 2002)
J/MNRAS/326/1455 : The CLASS blazar survey. I. (Marcha+, 2001)
J/MNRAS/323/757 : Deep X-Ray Radio Blazar Survey (DXRBS). II. (Landt+, 2001)
J/ApJ/525/127 : RGB of BL Lacertae objects (Laurent-Muehleisen+, 1999)
J/AJ/115/1253 : Deep X-Ray Radio Blazar Survey (DXRBS). I. (Perlman+ 1998)
J/MNRAS/216/173 : Bright extragalactic radio sources at 2.7 GHz (Wall+, 1985)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table[23].dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 14 A14 --- Name Blazar name
15 A1 --- f_Name [a] synchrotron peak from model fit (1)
17- 18 I2 h RAh [0/23] Hour of Right Ascension (J2000)
20- 21 I2 min RAm [0/59] Minute of Right Ascension (J2000)
23- 27 F5.2 s RAs Second of Right Ascension (J2000)
29 A1 --- DE- [±] Sign of the Declination (J2000)
30- 31 I2 deg DEd [0/82] Degree of Declination (J2000)
33- 34 I2 arcmin DEm [0/59] Arcminute of Declination (J2000)
36- 40 F5.2 arcsec DEs Arcsecond of Declination (J2000)
42 A1 --- Opt [BQ12] Optical spectral type (2)
44- 48 F5.3 --- z [0.00/2.559] Redshift
49 A1 --- f_z [*] '*' if z estimated from optical magnitude
51- 55 F5.2 [Hz] lognu [12.28/17.06] Log best-fit synchrotron peak
frequency
57- 60 F4.2 [Hz] E_lognu ? Positive error on lognu
62- 65 F4.2 [Hz] e_lognu ? Negative error on lognu
67- 71 F5.2 [10-7W] logLp [41.19/47.71] Log best-fit synchrotron peak
luminosity (in units of erg/s)
73- 77 F5.2 [10-7W] logL300 [37.29/44.57] Log 300MHz luminosity (erg/s)
79- 83 F5.2 [10-7W] logLkin [41.7/45.85] Log jet kinetic power (erg/s)
85- 88 A4 --- Meth [SD /VLA/both] Extended radio flux estimate
method (SD=spectral decomposition)
90- 91 A2 --- f_Meth [dg] estimate of extended flux (3)
93-101 A9 --- Ref [a-i, ] Reference(s) (4)
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Note (1): In table 3,
a = Synchrotron peak estimated from blazar model fit to core fluxes.
Note (2): Morphological type as follows:
B = BL Lac
Q = FSRQ ((broad) emission line-emitting Flat Spectrum Radio Quasar)
1 = FR-I (Fanaroff-Riley Class-I) radio galaxy
2 = FR-II (Fanaroff-Riley Class-II) radio galaxy
Note (3):
dg = Spectral decomposition estimate of extended flux used instead
of VLA estimate.
Note (4): References as follows:
b = Antonucci & Ulvestad (1985ApJ...294..158A 1985ApJ...294..158A);
c = Murphy et al. (1993MNRAS.264..298M 1993MNRAS.264..298M);
i = Cassaro et al. (1999A&AS..139..601C 1999A&AS..139..601C);
e = Landt & Bignall (2008MNRAS.391..967L 2008MNRAS.391..967L);
f = Kharb et al. (2010, Cat. J/ApJ/710/764);
g = Condon et al. (2002AJ....124..675C 2002AJ....124..675C);
h = Cooper et al. (2007, Cat. J/ApJS/171/376);
i = Caccianiga & Marcha (2004, Cat. J/MNRAS/348/937).
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
(End) Greg Schwarz [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 12-Feb-2013