A Physical Classification Scheme for Blazars

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

19 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Scientific paper

10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07750.x

Blazars are currently separated into BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQ) based on the strength of their emission lines. This is done rather arbitrarily by defining a diagonal line in the Ca H&K break value -- equivalent width plane, following Marcha et al. We readdress this problem and put the classification scheme for blazars on firm physical grounds. We study ~100 blazars and radio galaxies from the Deep X-ray Radio Blazar Survey (DXRBS) and 2 Jy radio survey and find a significant bimodality for the narrow emission line [OIII] 5007. This suggests the presence of two physically distinct classes of radio-loud AGN. We show that all radio-loud AGN, blazars and radio galaxies, can be effectively separated into weak- and strong-lined sources using the [OIII] 5007 -- [OII] 3727 equivalent width plane. This plane allows one to disentangle orientation effects from intrinsic variations in radio-loud AGN. Based on DXRBS, the strongly beamed sources of the new class of weak-lined radio-loud AGN are made up of BL Lacs at the ~75 per cent level, whereas those of the strong-lined radio-loud AGN include mostly (~97 per cent) quasars.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

A Physical Classification Scheme for Blazars does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with A Physical Classification Scheme for Blazars, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Physical Classification Scheme for Blazars will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-709096

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.