461,794 research outputs found
The Accretion Rates and Spectral Energy Distributions of BL Lacertae Objects
We investigate the relationship between accretion rates and the spectral
energy distributions (SEDs) of BL Lac objects, using a sample of objects for
which published information on the host galaxies, emission-line luminosities,
and peak frequencies and luminosities of their SEDs are available. The sample
is composed of 43 BL Lac objects which have a relatively continuous
distribution of peak frequencies. Under the assumption that the observed
emission lines are photoionized by the central accretion disk, we use the line
luminosities to estimate the accretion luminosities and hence accretion rates.
We find that low frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (LBLs) span a wide range of
accretion rates, whereas high frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (HBLs) cover a
more restricted range of lower values. There appears to be a continuous
distribution of accretion rates between the two subclasses of BL Lac objects.
We find that the peak frequency of the SED, \pknu, correlates with the
accretion rate, approximately with the form \pknu\propto \Lambda^{-3} in HBLs
and \pknu \propto \Lambda^{-0.25} in LBLs, where . The peak luminosity of the SED is also correlated with .
These results suggest that the accretion rate influences the shape of the SED
in BL Lac objects. They also support models which couple the jet and the
accretion disk. We present a physical scenario to account for the empirical
trends.Comment: 6 pages in emulateapj.sty, 3 figures 1 table. The Astrophysical
Journal (in press
Spectral energy distributions of a large sample of BL Lacertae objects
We have collected a large amount of multifrequency data for the objects in
the Metsahovi Radio Observatory BL Lacertae sample and computed their spectral
energy distributions (SED). This is the first time the SEDs of BL Lacs have
been studied with a sample of over 300 objects. The synchrotron components of
the SEDs were fitted with a parabolic function to determine the synchrotron
peak frequency. We checked the dependence between luminosities at several
frequency bands and synchrotron peak frequency to test the blazar sequence
scenario, which states that the source luminosity depends on the location of
the synchrotron peak. We also calculated broad band spectral indices and
plotted them against each other and the peak frequency. The range of peak
frequencies in our study was considerably extended compared to previous
studies. There were 22 objects for which log\nu_{peak}>19. The data shows that
at 5 GHz, 37 GHz and 5500 A there is negative correlation between luminosity
and nu_{peak}. There is no significant correlation between source luminosity at
synchrotron peak and peak frequency. Several low radio luminosity-low energy
peaked BL Lacs were found. The negative correlation between broad band spectral
indices and nu_{peak} is also significant, although there is substantial
scatter. Therefore we find that neither alpha_{rx} nor alpha_{ro} can be used
to determine the synchrotron peak of BL Lacs. On the grounds of our results we
conclude that the blazar sequence scenario is not valid. In all our results the
BL Lac population is continuous with no hint of the bimodality of the first BL
Lac samples.Comment: 10 + 27 pages, 13 figures, accepted to A&
Downsizing of Star-Forming Galaxies by Gravitational Processes
There is observed a trend that a lower mass galaxy forms stars at a later
epoch. This downsizing of star-forming galaxies has been attributed to
hydrodynamical or radiative feedback processes that regulate star formation.
However, here we explain the downsizing by gravitational processes alone, in
the bottom-up scenario where galaxies evolve from subgalactic-scale objects.
Within a region of the initial density field that is to evolve into a lower
mass galaxy, subgalactic-scale fluctuation is of a smaller amplitude. The
formation of subgalactic-scale objects, i.e., gravitational collapse of the
subgalactic-scale fluctuation, and the subsequent onset of star formation
accordingly occur at a later epoch for a lower mass galaxy. As a function of
galaxy mass, we calculate the peak epoch of formation of subgalactic-scale
objects. The peak epoch is consistent with the peak epoch of star formation
derived from observations. [abridged]Comment: 4 pages, to appear in Astronomy and Astrophysics (Research Note
The HRX-BL Lac sample - evolution of BL Lac objects
The unification of X-ray and radio selected BL Lacs has been an outstanding
problem in the blazar research in the past years. Recent investigations have
shown that the gap between the two classes can be filled with intermediate
objects and that apparently all differences can be explained by mutual shifts
of the peak frequencies of the synchrotron and inverse Compton component of the
emission. We study the consequences of this scheme using a new sample of X-ray
selected BL Lac objects comprising 104 objects with z<0.9 and a mean redshift
z=0.34. 77 BL Lacs, of which the redshift could be determined for 64 (83%)
objects, form a complete sample. The new data could not confirm our earlier
result, drawn from a subsample, that the negative evolution vanishes below a
synchrotron peak frequency log (peak-frequency) = 16.5. The complete sample
shows negative evolution at the 2 sigma level ( = 0.42 +- 0.04). We
conclude that the observed properties of the HRX BL Lac sample show typical
behaviour for X-ray selected BL Lacs. They support an evolutionary model, in
which flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQ) with high energetic jets evolve
towards low frequency peaked (mostly radio-selected) BL Lac objects and later
on to high frequency peaked (mostly X-ray selected) BL Lacs.Comment: 24 pages, 35 figures, accepted by A&
Distinguishing RBL-like objects and XBL-like objects with the peak emission frequency of the overall energy spectrum
We investigate quantitatively how the peak emission frequency of the overall
energy spectrum is at work in distinguishing RBL-like and XBL-like objects. We
employ the sample of Giommi et al. (1995) to study the distribution of BL
Lacertae objects with various locations of the cutoff of the overall energy
spectrum. We find that the sources with the cutoff located at lower frequency
are indeed sited in the RBL region of the plane,
while those with the cutoff located at higher frequency are distributed in the
XBL region. For a more quantitative study, we employ the BL Lacertae samples
presented by Sambruna et al. (1996), where, the peak emission frequency, , of each source is estimated by fitting the data with a parabolic function.
In the plot of we find that, in the four different
regions divided by the line and the line,
all the RBL-like objects are inside the upper left region, while most XBL-like
objects are within the lower right region. A few sources are located in the
lower left region. No sources are in the upper right region. This result is
rather quantitative. It provides an evidence supporting what Giommi et al.
(1995) suggested: RBL-like and XBL-like objects can be distinguished by the
difference of the peak emission frequency of the overall energy spectrum.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
VLBI observations of seven BL Lac objects from RGB sample
We present EVN observations of seven BL Lac objects selected from the RGB
sample. To investigate the intrinsic radiation property of BL Lac objects, we
estimated the Doppler factor with the VLA or MERLIN core and the total 408 MHz
luminosity for a sample of 170 BL Lac objects. The intrinsic (comoving)
synchrotron peak frequency was then calculated by using the estimated Doppler
factor. Assuming a Lorentz factor of 5, the viewing angle of jets was
constrained. The high-resolution VLBI images of seven sources all show a
core-jet structure. We estimated the proper motions of three sources with the
VLBI archive data, and find that the apparent speed increases with the distance
of components to the core for all of them. In our BL Lacs sample, the Doppler
factor of LBLs is systematically larger than that of IBLs and HBLs. We find a
significant anti-correlation between the total 408 MHz luminosity and the
intrinsic synchrotron peak frequency. However, the scatter is much larger than
for the blazar sequence. Moreover, we find a significant positive correlation
between the viewing angle and the intrinsic synchrotron peak frequency. The BL
Lac objects show a continuous distribution on the viewing angle. While LBLs
have a smaller viewing angle than that of IBLs and HBLs, IBLs are comparable to
HBLs. We conclude that the intrinsic synchrotron peak frequency is not only
related to the intrinsic radio power (though with a large scatter), but also to
the viewing angle for the present sample.Comment: 22 pages,15figures, published by A&
Bounds on the mass and abundance of dark compact objects and black holes in dwarf spheroidal galaxy halos
We establish new dynamical constraints on the mass and abundance of compact
objects in the halo of dwarf spheroidal galaxies. In order to preserve
kinematically cold the second peak of the Ursa Minor dwarf spheroidal (UMi
dSph) against gravitational scattering, we place upper limits on the density of
compact objects as a function of their assumed mass. The mass of the dark
matter constituents cannot be larger than 1000 solar masses at a halo density
in UMi's core of 0.35 solar masses/pc^3. This constraint rules out a scenario
in which dark halo cores are formed by two-body relaxation processes. Our
bounds on the fraction of dark matter in compact objects with masses >3000
solar masses improve those based on dynamical arguments in the Galactic halo.
In particular, objects with masses solar masses can comprise no
more than a halo mass fraction . Better determinations of the
velocity dispersion of old overdense regions in dSphs may result in more
stringent constraints on the mass of halo objects. For illustration, if the
preliminary value of 0.5 km/s for the secondary peak of UMi is confirmed,
compact objects with masses above solar masses could be excluded
from comprising all its dark matter halo.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
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