The beaming effect and γ-ray emission for Fermi blazars

We study the γ-ray luminosity and beaming effect for Fermi blazars.Our results are as follows.(i) There are significant correlations between γ-ray luminosity and radio core luminosity,and between γ-ray luminosity and R_v,which suggests that the γ-ray emissions have a strong beaming effect,(ⅱ) Using the L_(ext)/M_(abs) as an indicator of environment effects,we find that there is no significant correlation betweenγ-ray luminosity and L_(ext)/M_(abs) for all sources when we remove the effect of redshift.Flat spectrum radio quasars considered alone also do not show a significant correlation,but BL Lacertae objects(BL Lacs) still show a significant correlation when we remove the effect of redshift.These results suggest that the γ-ray emission may be affected by the environment on a kiloparsec scale for BL Lacs.     

Does black hole spin play a key role in the FSRQ/BL Lac dichotomy?

Blazars are characterized by large intensity and spectral variations across the electromagnetic spectrum It is believed that jets emerging from them are almost aligned with the line-of-sight. The majority of identified extragalactic sources in γ-ray catalogs of EGRET and Fermi are blazars. Observationally,blazars can be divided into two classes: flat spectrum radio quasars(FSRQs) and BL Lacs. BL Lacs usually exhibit lower γ-ray luminosity and harder power law spectra at γ-ray energies than FSRQs. We attempt to explain the high energy properties of FSRQs and BL Lacs from Fermi γ-ray space telescope observations. It was argued previously that the difference in accretion rates is mainly responsible for the large mismatch in observed luminosity in γ-ray. However, when intrinsic luminosities are derived by correcting for beaming effects, this difference in γ-ray luminosity between the two classes is significantly reduced. In order to explain this difference in intrinsic luminosities, we propose that spin plays an important role in the luminosity distribution dichotomy of BL Lacs and FSRQs. As the outflow power of a blazar increases with increasing spin of a central black hole, we suggest that the spin plays a crucial role in making BL Lac sources low luminous and slow rotators compared to FSRQ sources.     

The core dominance parameter and Fermi detection of extragalactic radio sources

By cross-correlating an archive sample of 542 extragalactic radio sources with the Fermi-LAT Third Source Catalog(3FGL), we have compiled a sample of 80 γ-ray sources and 462 non-Fermi sources with available core dominance parameter(RCD), and core and extended radio luminosity; all the parameters are directly measured or derived from available data in the literature. We found that RCD has significant correlations with radio core luminosity, γ-ray luminosity and γ-ray flux; the Fermi sources have on average higher RCD than non-Fermi sources. These results indicate that the Fermi sources should be more compact,and the beaming effect should play a crucial role in the detection of γ-ray emission. Moreover, our results also show Fermi sources have systematically larger radio flux than non-Fermi sources at fixed RCD, indicating larger intrinsic radio flux in Fermi sources. These results show a strong connection between radio andγ-ray flux for the present sample and indicate that the non-Fermi sources are likely due to the low beaming effect, and/or the low intrinsic γ-ray flux. This supports a scenario that has been published in the literature:a co-spatial origin of the activity for the radio and γ-ray emission, suggesting that the origin of the seed photons for the high-energy γ-ray emission is within the jet.     

BL Lacertae objects and the extragalactic γ-ray background

A tight correlation between γ-ray and radio emission is found for a sample of BL Lacertae(BL Lac) objects detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope(Fermi) and the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope(EGRET) . The γ-ray emission of BL Lac objects exhibits strong variability,and the detection rate of γ-ray BL Lac objects is low,which may be related to the γ-ray duty cycle of BL Lac objects. We estimate the γ-ray duty cycle,δγ 0.11,for BL Lac objects detected by EGRET and Fermi. Using the empirical r...     

The intrinsic γ-ray emissions of Fermi blazars

The beaming effect is important for understanding the observational properties of blazars.In this work, we collect 91 Fermi blazars with available radio Doppler factors. γ-ray Doppler factors are estimated and compared with radio Doppler factors for some sources. The intrinsic(de-beamed)γ-ray flux density(f_γ~(in)), intrinsic γ-ray luminosity(L_γ~(in)) and intrinsic synchrotron peak frequency(V_P~(in))are calculated. Then we study the correlations between finγand redshift and find that they follow the theoretical relation: log f =-2.0 log z + const. When the subclasses are considered, we find that stationary jets are perhaps dominant in low synchrotron peaked blazars. Sixty-three Fermi blazars with both available short variability time scales(?T) and Doppler factors are also collected. We find that the intrinsic relationship between L_γ~(in) and ?Tinobeys the Elliot Shapiro and Abramowicz Nobili relations. Strong positive correlation between f_γ~(in)and V_P~(in)is found, suggesting that synchrotron emissions are highly correlated with γ-ray emissions.     

Comparisons of Jet Properties between GeV Radio Galaxies and Blazars

We compile a sample of spectral energy distributions(SEDs) of 12 GeV radio galaxies(RGs),including eight FR Ⅰ RGs and four FR Ⅱ RGs. These SEDs can be represented with the one-zone leptonic model. No significant unification, as expected in the unification model, is found for the derived jet parameters between FR Ⅰ RGs and BL Lacertae objects(BL Lacs) and between FR Ⅱ RGs and flat spectrum radio quasars(FSRQs). However, on average FR Ⅰ RGs have a larger γb(break Lorentz factor of electrons) and lower B(magnetic field strength) than FR Ⅱ RGs, analogous to the differences between BL Lacs and FSRQs. The derived Doppler factors(δ) of RGs are on average smaller than those of blazars, which is consistent with the unification model such that RGs are the misaligned parent populations of blazars with smaller δ. On the basis of jet parameters from SED fits, we calculate their jet powers and the powers carried by each component, and compare their jet compositions and radiation efficiencies with blazars. Most of the RG jets may be dominated by particles, like BL Lacs, not FSRQs.However, the jets of RGs with higher radiation efficiencies tend to have higher jet magnetization. A strong anticorrelation between synchrotron peak frequency and jet power is observed for GeV RGs and blazars in both the observer and co-moving frames, indicating that the "sequence" behavior among blazars, together with the GeV RGs, may be intrinsically dominated by jet power.     

Fermi/LAT observations of lobe-dominant radio galaxy 3C 207 and possible radiation region of γ-rays

3 C 207 is a lobe-dominant radio galaxy with a one sided jet and bright knots, spanning a kpcMpc scale, which have been resolved in the radio, optical and X-ray bands. This target was confirmed as a γ-ray emitter with Fermi/LAT, but it is uncertain whether the γ-ray emission region is the core or knots due to the low spatial resolution of Fermi/LAT. We present an analysis of its Fermi/LAT data acquired during the past 9 years. Different from the radio and optical emission from the core, it is found that theγ-ray emission is steady without detection of flux variation at over a 2σ confidence level. This likely implies that the γ-ray emission is from its knots. We collect the radio, optical and X-ray data of knot-A,the closest knot from the core at 1.4′′, and compile its spectral energy distribution(SED). Although the single-zone synchrotron+SSC+IC/CMB model that assumes knot-A is at rest can reproduce the SED in the radio-optical-X-ray band, the predicted γ-ray flux is lower than the LAT observations and the derived magnetic field strength deviates from the equipartition condition by 3 orders of magnitude. Assuming that knot-A is moving relativistically, its SED from radio to γ-ray bands would be represented well with the single-zone synchrotron+SSC+IC/CMB model under the equipartition condition. These results likely suggest that the γ-ray emission may be from knot-A via the IC/CMB process and the knot should have relativistical motion. The jet power derived from our model parameters is also roughly consistent with the kinetic power estimated with radio data.     

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     

What determines the observational differences of blazars?

We examine the scenario that the Doppler factor determines the observational differences of blazars. Significantly negative correlations are found between the observational synchrotron peak frequency and the Doppler factor. After correcting the Doppler boosting, the intrinsic peak frequency has a tight linear relation with the Doppler factor. It is interesting that this relation is consistent with the scenario that the black hole mass governs both the bulk Lorentz factor and the synchrotron peak frequency. In addition, the distinction between the kinetic jet powers of BL Lac objects and flat spectrum radio quasars disappears after the boosting factor δ~2 is considered. The negative correlation between the peak frequency and the observational isotropic luminosity, known as the blazar sequence, also disappears after the Doppler boosting is corrected. We also find that the correlation between the Compton dominance and the Doppler factor exists for all types of blazars. Therefore, this correlation is unsuitable for examining the external Compton emission dominance.     

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.     

The Doppler Effect and Spectral Energy Distribution of Blazars

The relativistic beaming model is adopted to discuss quantitatively the observational differences between radio-selected BL Lac objects (RBLs) and X-ray-selected BL Lac objects (XBLs), and between BL Lac objects and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs). The main results are the following:(1) In the Doppler corrected color-color(αro^in-αox^in) diagram,XBLs and FSRQs occupy separated regions, while RBLs bridge the gap between them. These properties suggest that similar intrinsic physical processes operate in all the objects under a range of intrinsic physical conditions. (2) Our results are consistent with the results of Sambruna, Maraschi and Urry (1996) from other methods. We show the αxox introduced by Sambruna to be a good index for describing the energy distribution because it represents the intrinsic energy distribution and includes the Doppler correction. (3)The Doppler effect of relativistic beaming is the main mechanism, and the physical differences(such as magnetic fields, electron energies) are also important complementary factors for understanding the relation between XBLs and RBLS.     

A Statistical Study of XBLs, RBLs and FSRQs at 1.5 GHz

BL Lac objects are similar to the fiat spectrum radio quasars in many aspects except regarding the emission lines.In order to study their relationship,we selected 56 BL Lacertae objects(33 X-ray-selected,23 radio-selected)and 45 flat spectrum radio quasars,analyzed their radio luminosities and core-dominance parameters.We found that the radio luminosities of the radio selected BL Lac objects located in between the X-ray selected BL Lac objects and the fiat spectrum radio quasars.However,this intermediate position does not bold for the core-dominance parameter:the RBLs have the largest core-dominance parameters.This sug- gests that the core-dominance parameter can not be taken as a sequencing criterion.We also investigated the correlation between the luminosity and the core-dominance parameter for the three subclasses.We concluded that,here,the sequence XBL-RBL—FSRQ still exists.     

Identification of candidate millisecond pulsars from Fermi LAT observations

We report our detailed data analysis of 39 γ-ray sources selected from the 992 unassociated sources in the third Fermi Large Area Telescope Third Source Catalog.The selection criteria,which were set for finding candidate millisecond pulsars(MSPs),are non-variables with curved spectra and 5?Galactic latitudes.From our analysis,24 sources were found to be point-like sources not contaminated by background or nearby unknown sources.Three of them,J1544.6-1125,J1625.1-0021 and J1653.6-0158,have been previously studied,indicating that they are likely MSPs.The spectra of J0318.1+0252 and J2053.9+2922 do not have properties similar to known γ-ray MSPs,and we thus suggest that they are not MSPs.Analysis of archival X-ray data for most of the 24 sources was also conducted.Four sources were found with X-ray objects in their error circles,and 16 with no detection.The ratios between the γ-ray fluxes and X-ray fluxes or flux upper limits are generally lower than those of known γ-ray MSPs,suggesting that if the γ-ray sources are MSPs,none of the X-ray objects are their counterparts.Deep X-ray or radio observations of these sources are needed in order to identify their MSP nature.     

Highly variable γ-ray emission of CTD 135 and implications for its compact symmetric structure

The γ-ray emission properties of CTD 135,a typical compact symmetric object(CSO),are investigated with ～11-year Fermi/LAT observations.We show that it has bright and significantly variable GeV emission,with the γ-ray luminosity of L_γ～ 10~(47) erg s~(-1) and a variation index of TS_(var)=1002.A quasi-periodic oscillation(QPO) with a periodicity of ～460 days is detected in the global 95% false-alarm level.These γ-ray emission features are similar to that of blazars.Its broadband spectral energy distribution(SED) can be attributed to the radiations of the relativistic electrons accelerated in the core region and the extended region.The SED modeling shows that the γ-rays are from the core region,which has a Doppler boosting factor of δ～10.8 and relativistically moves with a small viewing angle,being similar to blazar jets.On the base of the analysis results,we propose that the episodic activity of the central engine in CTD135 results in a blazar-like jet and the bubble-like lobes as the Fermi bubbles in the Galaxy.The strong 7-ray emission with obvious variability is from the jet radiations and the symmetric radio structure is attributed to the bubbles.The jet radiation power and disk luminosity in units of Eddington luminosity of CTD 135 follow the same relation as other young radio sources,indicating that its jet radiation may also be driven by the Eddington ratio.     

Effects of Redshift on the Classifying Criteria of BL Lacertae Objects

We have collected a sample of 70 BL Lacs (33 radio-selected BL Lacs and 37 X-ray selected BL Lacs) with multi-waveband data for investigating the classifying criteria of BL Lacertae Objects. For each source, we estimate its luminosities in radio, optical and X-ray, the broad-band spectral index from radio to X-ray and the peak frequency of the syn- chrotron emission, and make a statistical analysis of the data obtained. Our main results are as follows: (1) The broad-band spectral index and the peak frequency have no correlation with the redshift, while they are inversely correlated with each other and they could be regarded as equivalent classifying criteria of BL Lac objects. (2) There are significant effects of the luminosity/redshift relation on the observed luminosity distribution in our sample, hence, if the radio luminosity is to be used as a classifying criterion of BL Lac objects, it should not be regarded as equivalent to the broad-band spectral index or the peak frequency. (3) Our re- sults supply a specific piece of evidence for the suggestion that the use of luminosities always introduces a redshift bias to the data and show that the location of the peak frequency is not always linked to the luminosity of any wave band.     

Relation between the ＂Double-Hump＂ Behavior in the Radio Band and the Broad-Line Luminosity for Blazars

The physics behind the spectral energy distribution (SED) of blazars remains open.We assembled 36 blazars to tackle the factors that control their SED. Now, many blazar spectra have the "double hump" feature in the radio and far-IR frequencies. For these a parameter,△, is created to characterize the behavior of the SED. We found a significant correlation between the broad-line luminosity (LBLR) and △. Because LBLR is an indicator of the accreting power of the source in blazars, we derived a linear correlation,△∝ (M)1/3. 18, which suggests that the SED of blazars may depend on the accretion rate, like that of BL Lac objects. We also found a significant correlation between (m) and△ for a sample of 11 blazars (out of one of 36)with available black hole masses. This implies the Eddington accretion ratio may influence the shape of the SED of blazars.     

Spin-down and emission variations for PSR J0742-2822

PSR J0742-2822 is known for its quasi-periodic changes in the observed pulse profile and spindown rate.In this paper,we analyzed 13 years of timing data obtained with the Nanshan 25-m radio telescope and the Parkes 64-m radio telescope.We found that the average values of the spin-down rate((v))of this pulsar changed in four different states.We investigated the correlation between v and W50,and ascertained that the correlation changed in different states.Moreover,not all the changes in states and correlation can be associated with glitch activities.We examined the long term evolution ofγ-ray flux(0.1-300 GeV)and the pulse profiles corresponding to the four different states using Fermi-LAT Pass8(P8 R3)data from 2008 August 5 to 2019 October 1.We did not detect a significant change inγ-ray flux or the pulse profile.Our results suggest that the connection between pulsar rotation and emission is more complex than previously reported for this pulsar.     

Spectral energy distributions for TeV blazars

In this work, we collected a sample of 69 TeV blazars from TeVCat, obtained their multiwavelength observations, and fitted their spectral energy distributions by using a second degree polynomial function. The structure parameters of synchrotron bumps for 68 blazars and those of inverseCompton bumps for 56 blazars were derived. Then, we conducted statistical analysis on the parameters(curvature, peak frequency, peak luminosity, bolometric luminosity and X/γ-ray spectral indexes).From our analysis and discussions, we can conclude the following:(1) There is a clear positive correlation between the synchrotron peak frequency, log ν_p~s, and the inverse-Compton peak frequency, log ν_p~(IC),and between the synchrotron peak luminosity, log ν_p~sL_(νp)~s, and the inverse-Compton peak luminosity,log ν_p~(IC)L_(νp)~(IC).(2) The correlation between the peak frequency and the curvature of synchrotron bump is clearly different from that of the inverse-Compton bump, which further indicates that there are different emission mechanisms between them.(3) There is a correlation between log νIC pand γ-ray spectral index, α_γ, for the TeV blazars: log ν_p~(IC)=-(4.59 ± 0.30)α_γ+(32.67 ± 0.59), which is consistent with previous work.(4) An "L-shape" relation is found between log ν_p~s and α_X for both TeV blazars and Fermi blazars. A significant correlation between log νs pand X-ray photon index(α_X) is found for the TeV blazars with high synchrotron peak frequency: log ν_p~s=-(3.20 ± 0.34)α_X+(24.33 ± 0.79),while the correlation is positive for low synchrotron peaked TeV sources.(5) In the αX-αγdiagram,there is also an "L-shape." The anti-correlation is consistent with results available in the literature, and we also find a positive correlation between them.(6) Inverse-Compton dominant sources have luminous bolometric luminosities.     

On the intrinsic shape of the gamma-ray spectrum for Fermi blazars

The curvature of the γ-ray spectrum in blazars may reflect the intrinsic distribution of emitting electrons, which will further give some information on the possible acceleration and cooling processes in the emitting region. The γ-ray spectra of Fermi blazars are normally fitted either by a single power-law(PL) or a log-normal(call Logarithmic Parabola, LP) form. The possible reason for this difference is not clear. We statistically explore this issue based on the different observational properties of 1419 Fermi blazars in the 3 LAC Clean Sample. We find that the γ-ray flux(100 Me V–100 Ge V) and variability index follow bimodal distributions for PL and LP blazars, where the γ-ray flux and variability index show a positive correlation. However, the distributions of γ-ray luminosity and redshift follow a unimodal distribution. Our results suggest that the bimodal distribution of γ-ray fluxes for LP and PL blazars may not be intrinsic and all blazars may have an intrinsically curved γ-ray spectrum, and the PL spectrum is just caused by the fitting effect due to less photons.