148 research outputs found
Filling in the Gaps in the 4.85 GHz Sky
We describe a 4.85 GHz survey of bright, flat-spectrum radio sources
conducted with the Effelsberg 100 m telescope in an attempt to improve the
completeness of existing surveys, such as CRATES. We report the results of
these observations and of follow-up 8.4 GHz observations with the VLA of a
subset of the sample. We comment on the connection to the WMAP point source
catalog and on the survey's effectiveness at supplementing the CRATES sky
coverage.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in the
Astronomical Journal. Tables available in electronic form:
http://astro.stanford.edu/gaps
Optical Spectroscopy of Bright Fermi LAT Blazars
We report on HET and Palomar 5 m spectroscopy of recently identified
-ray blazars in the {\it Fermi} LAT Bright Source List. These data
provide identifications for 10 newly discovered -ray flat spectrum
radio quasars (FSRQ) and six new BL Lacs plus improved spectroscopy for six
additional BL Lacs. We substantially improve the identification completeness of
the bright LAT blazars and give new redshifts and constraints, new
estimates of the black hole masses and new measurements of the optical SED.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Ap
CGRaBS: An All-Sky Survey of Gamma-Ray Blazar Candidates
We describe a uniform all-sky survey of bright blazars, selected primarily by
their flat radio spectra, that is designed to provide a large catalog of likely
gamma-ray AGN. The defined sample has 1625 targets with radio and X-ray
properties similar to those of the EGRET blazars, spread uniformly across the
|b| > 10 deg sky. We also report progress toward optical characterization of
the sample; of objects with known R < 23, 85% have been classified and 81% have
measured redshifts. One goal of this program is to focus attention on the most
interesting (e.g., high redshift, high luminosity, ...) sources for intensive
multiwavelength study during the observations by the Large Area Telescope (LAT)
on GLAST.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, 1 machine-readable table available at
http://astro.stanford.edu/CGRaBS/ ; accepted for publication in ApJ
Spectroscopy of Broad Line Blazars from 1LAC
We report on optical spectroscopy of 165 Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs)
in the Fermi 1LAC sample, which have helped allow a nearly complete study of
this population. Fermi FSRQ show significant evidence for non-thermal emission
even in the optical; the degree depends on the gamma-ray hardness. They also
have smaller virial estimates of hole mass than the optical quasar sample. This
appears to be largely due to a preferred (axial) view of the gamma-ray FSRQ and
non-isotropic (H/R ~ 0.4) distribution of broad-line velocities. Even after
correction for this bias, the Fermi FSRQ show higher mean Eddington ratios than
the optical population. A comparison of optical spectral properties with Owens
Valley Radio Observatory radio flare activity shows no strong correlation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
A Northern Survey of Gamma-Ray Blazar Candidates
In preparation for GLAST, we have compiled a sample of blazar candidates to
increase the pool of well studied AGN from which GLAST counterparts will be
drawn. Sources were selected with our Figure of Merit (FoM) ranking; thus, they
have radio and X-ray properties very similar to the EGRET blazars.
Spectroscopic confirmation of these candidates is in progress, and more than
70% of these objects have been identified as flat spectrum radio quasars and BL
Lac objects. We present ~250 new optical blazar identifications based on
McDonald Observatory spectroscopy, 224 with redshifts. Of these, 167 are in our
FoM-selected set.
To motivate the Gamma-ray nature of these objects, we analyzed the current
release of the EGRET data for possible point sources at their radio positions.
We develop two distinct methods to combine multiple EGRET observations of a sky
position into a single detection significance. We report a detection of the
signal of the set of blazar candidates in the EGRET data at the > 3 sigma level
by both techniques. We predict that the majority of these blazar candidates
will be found by GLAST due to its increased sensitivity, duty cycle and
resolving power.Comment: ApJ Accepted (to appear 10 June 2005
FIRST "Winged" and X-shaped Radio Source Candidates: II. New Redshifts
We report optical spectroscopic observations of X-shaped radio sources with
the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and Multiple-Mirror Telescope, focused on the sample
of candidates from the FIRST survey presented in Paper I (Cheung 2007). A total
of 27 redshifts were successfully obtained, 21 of which are new, including that
of a newly identified candidate source of this type which is presented here.
With these observations, the sample of candidates from Paper I is over 50%
spectroscopically identified. Two new broad emission-lined X-shaped radio
sources are revealed, while no emission lines were detected in about one third
of the observed sources; a detailed study of the line properties is deferred to
a future paper. Finally, to explore their relation to the Fanaroff-Riley
division, the radio luminosities and host galaxy absolute magnitudes of a
spectroscopically identified sample of 50 X-shaped radio galaxies are
calculated to determine their placement in the Owen-Ledlow plane.Comment: emulateapj style, 10 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables; ApJS accepted with
minor revision from submitted version (v1
CRATES: An All-Sky Survey of Flat-Spectrum Radio Sources
We have assembled an 8.4 GHz survey of bright, flat-spectrum (alpha > -0.5)
radio sources with nearly uniform extragalactic (|b|>10 deg) coverage for
sources brighter than S_{4.8 GHz} = 65 mJy. The catalog is assembled from
existing observations (especially CLASS and the Wright et al. PMN-CA survey),
augmented by reprocessing of archival VLA and ATCA data and by new observations
to fill in coverage gaps. We refer to this program as CRATES, the Combined
Radio All-sky Targeted Eight GHz Survey. The resulting catalog provides precise
positions, sub-arcsecond structures, and spectral indices for some 11,000
sources. We describe the morphology and spectral index distribution of the
sample and comment on the survey's power to select several classes of
interesting sources, especially high energy blazars. Comparison of CRATES with
other high-frequency surveys also provides unique opportunities for
identification of high-power radio sources.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, 2 machine-readable tables available at
http://astro.stanford.edu/CRATES/ ; accepted for publication in ApJ
Blazars in the Fermi Era: The OVRO 40-m Telescope Monitoring Program
The Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
provides an unprecedented opportunity to study gamma-ray blazars. To capitalize
on this opportunity, beginning in late 2007, about a year before the start of
LAT science operations, we began a large-scale, fast-cadence 15 GHz radio
monitoring program with the 40-m telescope at the Owens Valley Radio
Observatory (OVRO). This program began with the 1158 northern (declination>-20
deg) sources from the Candidate Gamma-ray Blazar Survey (CGRaBS) and now
encompasses over 1500 sources, each observed twice per week with a ~4 mJy
(minimum) and 3% (typical) uncertainty. Here, we describe this monitoring
program and our methods, and present radio light curves from the first two
years (2008 and 2009). As a first application, we combine these data with a
novel measure of light curve variability amplitude, the intrinsic modulation
index, through a likelihood analysis to examine the variability properties of
subpopulations of our sample. We demonstrate that, with high significance
(7-sigma), gamma-ray-loud blazars detected by the LAT during its first 11
months of operation vary with about a factor of two greater amplitude than do
the gamma-ray-quiet blazars in our sample. We also find a significant (3-sigma)
difference between variability amplitude in BL Lacertae objects and
flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), with the former exhibiting larger
variability amplitudes. Finally, low-redshift (z<1) FSRQs are found to vary
more strongly than high-redshift FSRQs, with 3-sigma significance. These
findings represent an important step toward understanding why some blazars emit
gamma-rays while others, with apparently similar properties, remain silent.Comment: 23 pages, 24 figures. Submitted to ApJ
Spectroscopy of the Largest Ever γ-Ray-selected BL Lac Sample
We report on spectroscopic observations covering most of the 475 BL Lacs in the second Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) catalog of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Including archival measurements (correcting several erroneous literature values) we now have spectroscopic redshifts for 44% of the BL Lacs. We establish firm lower redshift limits via intervening absorption systems and statistical lower limits via searches for host galaxies for an additional 51% of the sample leaving only 5% of the BL Lacs unconstrained. The new redshifts raise the median spectroscopic z from 0.23 to 0.33 and include redshifts as large as z = 2.471. Spectroscopic redshift minima from intervening absorbers have z = 0.70, showing a substantial fraction at large z and arguing against strong negative evolution. We find that detected BL Lac hosts are bright ellipticals with black hole masses M_• ~ 10^(8.5) – 10^9, substantially larger than the mean of optical AGNs and LAT Flat Spectrum Radio Quasar samples. A slow increase in M_• with z may be due to selection bias. We find that the power-law dominance of the optical spectrum extends to extreme values, but this does not strongly correlate with the γ-ray properties, suggesting that strong beaming is the primary cause of the range in continuum dominance
Steam and Flame Applications as Novel Methods of Population Control for Invasive Asian Clam (Corbicula fluminea) and Zebra Mussel (Dreissena polymorpha)
Control strategies for established populations of invasive alien species can be costly and complex endeavours, which are frequently unsuccessful. Therefore, rapid-reaction techniques that are capable of maximising efficacy whilst minimising environmental damage are urgently required. The Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea Müller, 1774), and the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha Pallas, 1771), are invaders capable of adversely affecting the functioning and biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems. Despite efforts to implement substantial population-control measures, both species continue to spread and persist within freshwater environments. As bivalve beds often become exposed during low-water conditions, this study examined the efficacy of steam-spray (≥100 °C, 350 kPa) and open-flame burn treatments (~1000 °C) to kill exposed individuals. Direct steam exposure lasting for 5 min caused 100% mortality of C. fluminea buried at a depth of 3 cm. Further, combined rake and thermal shock treatments, whereby the substrate is disturbed between each application of either a steam or open flame, caused 100% mortality of C. fluminea specimens residing within a 4-cm deep substrate patch, following three consecutive treatment applications. However, deeper 8-cm patches and water-saturated substrate reduced maximum bivalve species mortality rates to 77% and 70%, respectively. Finally, 100% of D. polymorpha specimens were killed following exposure to steam and open-flame treatments lasting for 30 s and 5 s, respectively. Overall, our results confirm the efficacy of thermal shock treatments as a potential tool for substantial control of low-water-exposed bivalves. Although promising, our results require validation through upscaling to field application, with consideration of other substrate types, increased substrate depth, greater bivalve densities, non-target and long-term treatment effects
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