1,260 research outputs found
Analysis of the Spectral Energy Distributions of Fermi bright blazars
Blazars are a small fraction of all extragalactic sources but, unlike other
objects, they are strong emitters across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
In this study we have conducted a detailed investigation of the broad-band
spectral properties of the gamma-ray selected blazars of the Fermi-LAT Bright
AGN Sample (LBAS). By combining the accurately estimated Fermi gamma-ray
spectra with Swift, radio, NIR-Optical and hard-X/gamma-ray data, collected
within three months of the LBAS data taking period, we were able to assemble
high-quality and quasi-simultaneous Spectral Energy Distributions (SED) for 48
LBAS blazars.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, "2009 Fermi Symposium", "eConf Proceedings
C091122
Unidentifed gamma-ray sources: hunting gamma-ray blazars
One of the main scientific objectives of the ongoing Fermi mission is
unveiling the nature of the unidentified gamma-ray sources (UGSs). Despite the
large improvements of Fermi in the localization of gamma-ray sources with
respect to the past gamma-ray missions, about one third of the Fermi-detected
objects are still not associated to low energy counterparts. Recently, using
the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) survey, we discovered that
blazars, the rarest class of Active Galactic Nuclei and the largest population
of gamma-ray sources, can be recognized and separated from other extragalactic
sources on the basis of their infrared (IR) colors. Based on this result, we
designed an association method for the gamma-ray sources to reognize if there
is a blazar candidate within the positional uncertainty region of a generic
gamma-ray source. With this new IR diagnostic tool, we searched for gamma-ray
blazar candidates associated to the UGS sample of the second Fermi gamma-ray
catalog (2FGL). We found that our method associates at least one gamma-ray
blazar candidate as a counterpart each of 156 out of 313 UGSs analyzed. These
new low-energy candidates have the same IR properties as the blazars associated
to gamma-ray sources in the 2FGL catalog.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication on the Astrophysical
Journa
Study of microwave/gamma-ray properties for Fermi-LAT bright AGNs
Blazars are a small fraction of all extragalactic sources but, unlike other
objects, they are strong emitters across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
Recent data in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum have become
available to allow for systematic studies of blazars over large cosmological
volumes. This frequency band is indeed particularly suited for the selection of
blazars since at these frequencies the contamination from radio extended
components with steep spectra is no longer present and the emission from the
accretion process is negligible. During the first 3 months of scientific
operations Fermi-LAT detected 106 bright, high-galactic latitude (| b |> 10
deg) AGNs with high significance. In this study we investigate the possible
relations between the microwave and the gamma-ray emissions for Fermi-LAT
detected AGNs belonging to WMAP 5th year bright source catalog.Comment: 3 pages, 3 ps figures, "2009 Fermi Symposium", "eConf Proceedings
C091122
High-redshift blazars through nustar eyes
The most powerful sources among the blazar family are MeV blazars. Often
detected at , they usually display high X- and \gm-ray luminosities,
larger-than-average jet powers and black hole masses .
In the present work we perform a multiwavelength study of three high redshift
blazars: 3FGL J0325.5+2223 (), 3FGL J0449.0+1121 (), and 3FGL
J0453.22808 (), analysing quasi simultaneous data from GROND,
\swift-UVOT and XRT, \nustar, and \fermi-LAT. Our main focus is on the hard
X-ray band recently unveiled by \nustar~(379 keV) where these objects show a
hard spectrum which enables us to constrain the inverse Compton peak and the
jet power. We found that all three targets resemble the most powerful blazars,
with the synchrotron peak located in the sub-millimeter range and the inverse
Compton peak in the MeV range, and therefore belong to the MeV blazar class.
Using a simple one zone leptonic emission model to reproduce the spectral
energy distributions, we conclude that a simple combination of synchrotron and
accretion disk emission reproduces the infrared-optical spectra while the X-ray
to \gm-ray part is well reproduced by the inverse Compton scattering of low
energy photons supplied by the broad line region. The black hole masses for
each of the three sources are calculated to be . The three studied sources have jet power at the level of, or
beyond, the accretion luminosity.Comment: 4 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Ap
Blazar surveys with WMAP and Swift
We present the preliminary results from two new surveys of blazars that have
direct implications on the GLAST detection of extragalactic sources from two
different perspectives: microwave selection and a combined deep X-ray/radio
selection. The first one is a 41 GHz flux-limited sample extracted from the
WMAP 3-yr catalog of microwave point sources. This is a statistically well
defined sample of about 200 blazars and radio galaxies, most of which are
expected to be detected by GLAST. The second one is a new deep survey of
Blazars selected among the radio sources that are spatially coincident with
serendipitous sources detected in deep X-ray images (0.3-10 keV) centered on
the Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB) discovered by the Swift satellite. This sample is
particularly interesting from a statistical viewpoint since a) it is unbiased
as GRBs explode at random positions in the sky, b) it is very deep in the X-ray
band (\fx \simgt \ergs) with a position accuracy of a few
arc-seconds, c) it will cover a fairly large (20-30 square deg.) area of sky,
d) it includes all blazars with radio flux (1.4 GHz) larger than 10 mJy, making
it approximately two orders of magnitude deeper than the WMAP sample and about
one order of magnitude deeper than the deepest existing complete samples of
radio selected blazars, and e) it can be used to estimate the amount of
unresolved GLAST high latitude gamma-ray background and its anisotropy
spectrum.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Proc. of the 1st GLAST Symposium,
Feb 5-8, 2007, Stanford, AIP, Eds. S. Ritz, P. F. Michelson, and C. Meega
Atropisomerism in Hindered Naphthyl Sulfoxides: Structure, Stereodynamics, and Chiral Resolution.
Barriers for the EZ interconversion of atropisomers of 1-naphthyl sulfoxides (ArSOR) having a methyl group at position 2 of the naphthalene moiety were measured by variable-temperature NMR. Their values were found to cover the range 10.6-18.4 kcal mol-1, the extreme values corresponding to derivatives 1 (R = Me) and 4 (R = Bu(t)), respectively. NOE and LIS measurements indicated that the Z atropisomer is more stable than the E but that the absence of the methyl group at position 2 of the naphthalene moiety reverses this trend, rendering E more stable than Z. Solid-state NMR and X-ray diffraction of 4 established that only the more stable atropisomer (Z) is present in the crystalline state. Molecular mechanics calculations suggest that the Z,E interconversion process might occur by a rotation pathway having an opposite direction in the case of the more hindered derivatives 3 and 4 (R = Pr(i) and Bu(t), respectively) with respect to the less hindered 1 and 2 (R = Me and Et, respectively). The enantiomers, which are due to the presence of the asymmetric sulfur atom, were resolved on a chiral stationary phase (DACH-DNB) having an SS configuration. Asymmetric oxidation reactions were employed to assign the absolute R configuration to the more retained enantiomers of alkyl aryl sulfoxides. The opposite trend (S being retained longer) was observed for diaryl sulfoxides such as 5 (R = Ph). In the case of the derivative with the largest interconversion barrier, sulfoxide 4, it was also possible to resolve (at -35-degrees-C) the two enantiomeric forms and their associated atropisomers. The use of on-line CD detection and the knowledge of the NMR assignments allowed us to unambiguously assign the elution order of the four species as ES, ER, ZS, ZR
The Origin of the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background and Implications for Dark-Matter Annihilation
The origin of the extragalactic -ray background (EGB) has been
debated for some time. { The EGB comprises the -ray emission from
resolved and unresolved extragalactic sources, such as blazars, star-forming
galaxies and radio galaxies, as well as radiation from truly diffuse
processes.} This letter focuses on the blazar source class, the most numerous
detected population, and presents an updated luminosity function and spectral
energy distribution model consistent with the blazar observations performed by
the {\it Fermi} Large Area Telescope (LAT). We show that blazars account for
50\,\% of the EGB photons (0.1\,GeV), and that {\it Fermi}-LAT
has already resolved 70\,\% of this contribution. Blazars, and in
particular low-luminosity hard-spectrum nearby sources like BL Lacs, are
responsible for most of the EGB emission above 100\,GeV. We find that the
extragalactic background light, which attenuates blazars' high-energy emission,
is responsible for the high-energy cut-off observed in the EGB spectrum.
Finally, we show that blazars, star-forming galaxies and radio galaxies can
naturally account for the amplitude and spectral shape of the background in the
0.1--820\,GeV range, leaving only modest room for other contributions. This
allows us to set competitive constraints on the dark-matter annihilation cross
section.Comment: On behalf of the Fermi-LAT collaboration. Contact authors: M. Ajello,
D. Gasparrini, M. Sanchez-Conde, G. Zaharijas, M. Gustafsson. Accepted for
publication on ApJ
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