ABSTRACT
The lack of detected intermediate-mass black holes poses a gap in our understanding of the growth and evolution of the most exotic of astrophysical objects. Here, we investigate the ...possibility of low-luminosity relativistic jets launched by intermediate-mass black holes in the centres of dwarf galaxies. We built population models that allow us to make predictions for their radio emission and quantify their detectability by current and future surveys. We find that the upcoming instruments in optical and radio like the SKA, ngVLA, and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will likely be able to detect a significant fraction ($\gt 38{{\,\rm per\,cent}}$) of such sources population if they exist. In addition, our results suggest that it is not unlikely that a small number of midiquasars, possibly masquerading as low-luminosity active galactic nuclei, may have already been detected by existing surveys.
Context. Understanding the acceleration mechanism of astrophysical jets has been a cumbersome endeavor from both the theoretical and observational perspective. Although several breakthroughs have ...been achieved in recent years, on all sides, we are still missing a comprehensive model for the acceleration of astrophysical jets. Aims. In this work we attempt to construct a simple toy model that can account for several observational and theoretical results and allow us to probe different aspects of blazar jets usually inaccessible to observations. Methods. We used the toy model and Lorentz factor estimates from the literature to constrain the black hole spin and external pressure gradient distributions of blazars. Results. Our results show that (1) the model can reproduce the velocity, spin and external pressure gradient of the jet in M 87 inferred independently by observations; (2) blazars host highly spinning black holes with 99% of BL Lac objects and 80% of flat spectrum radio quasars having spins a > 0.6; (3) the dichotomy between BL Lac objects and flat spectrum radio quasars could be attributed to their respective accretion rates. Using the results of the proposed model, we estimated the spin and external pressure gradient for 75 blazars.
ABSTRACT
The Fermi γ-ray space telescope has revolutionized our view of the γ-ray sky and the high-energy processes in the Universe. While the number of known γ-ray emitters has increased by orders ...of magnitude since the launch of Fermi, there is an ever increasing number of, now more than a thousand, detected point sources whose low-energy counterpart is to this day unknown. To address this problem, we combined optical polarization measurements from the RoboPol survey as well as other discriminants of blazars from publicly available all-sky surveys in machine learning (ML, random forest and logistic regression) frameworks that could be used to identify blazars in the Fermi unidentified fields with an accuracy of >95 per cent. Out of the potential observational biases considered, blazar variability seems to have the most significant effect reducing the predictive power of the frameworks to ${\sim }80\hbox{-}85{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. We apply our ML framework to six unidentified Fermi fields observed using the RoboPol polarimeter. We identified the same candidate source proposed by Mandarakas et al. for 3FGL J0221.2 + 2518.
In a companion paper we presented a statistical model for the blazar population, consisting of distributions for the unbeamed radio luminosity function and the Lorentz factor distribution of each of ...the BL Lac and Flat Spectrum Radio Quasar (FSRQ) classes. Our model has been optimized so that it reproduces the MOJAVE (Monitoring Of Jets in Active galactic nuclei with VLBA Experiments) distributions of apparent speeds and redshifts when the appropriate flux limit is applied and a uniform distribution of jet viewing angles is assumed for the population. Here we use this model to predict the Doppler factor distribution for various flux-limited samples for which Doppler factors have been estimated in a variety of ways (equipartition, variability + equipartition, inverse Compton dominance) on a blazar-by-blazar basis. By comparing the simulated and data-estimated Doppler factor distributions in each case, we evaluate the different methods of estimating blazar Doppler factors. We find that the variability Doppler factors assuming equipartition are the ones in the best agreement with our statistical model, whereas the inverse Compton Doppler factor method is only suitable for FSRQs. In the case of variability Doppler factors, we find that while random errors are relatively low (∼30 per cent), uncertainties are dominated by systematic effects. In the case of inverse Compton Doppler factors, random errors appear to dominate, but are significantly larger (∼60 per cent).
Context.
Identifying the most likely sources for high-energy neutrino emission has been one of the main topics in high-energy astrophysics ever since the first observation of high-energy neutrinos by ...the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Active galactic nuclei with relativistic jets, also known as blazars, have been considered to be one of the main candidates because of their ability to accelerate particles to high energies.
Aims.
We study the connection between radio emission and IceCube neutrino events using data from the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) and Metsähovi Radio Observatory blazar monitoring programs.
Methods.
We identify sources in our radio monitoring sample that are positionally consistent with IceCube high-energy neutrino events. We estimate their mean flux density and variability amplitudes around the neutrino arrival time, and compare these with values from random samples to establish the significance of our results.
Results.
We find radio source associations within our samples with 15 high-energy neutrino events detected by IceCube. Nearly half of the associated sources are not detected in the
γ
-ray energies, but their radio variability properties and Doppler boosting factors are similar to the
γ
-ray detected objects in our sample, meaning that they could still be potential neutrino emitters. We find that the number of strongly flaring objects in our statistically complete OVRO samples is unlikely to be a random coincidence (at 2
σ
level).
Conclusions.
Based on our results, we conclude that although it is clear that not all neutrino events are associated with strong radio flaring blazars, observations of large-amplitude radio flares in a blazar at the same time as a neutrino event are unlikely to be a random coincidence.
Abstract
We use results of our 3 yr polarimetric monitoring programme to investigate the previously suggested connection between rotations of the polarization plane in the optical emission of blazars ...and their gamma-ray flares in the GeV band. The homogeneous set of 40 rotation events in 24 sources detected by RoboPol is analysed together with the gamma-ray data provided by Fermi-LAT. We confirm that polarization plane rotations are indeed related to the closest gamma-ray flares in blazars and the time lags between these events are consistent with zero. Amplitudes of the rotations are anticorrelated with amplitudes of the gamma-ray flares. This is presumably caused by higher relativistic boosting (higher Doppler factors) in blazars that exhibit smaller amplitude polarization plane rotations. Moreover, the time-scales of rotations and flares are marginally correlated.
We present average R-band optopolarimetric data, as well as variability parameters, from the first and second RoboPol observing season. We investigate whether gamma-ray-loud and gamma-ray-quiet ...blazars exhibit systematic differences in their optical polarization properties. We find that gamma-ray-loud blazars have a systematically higher polarization fraction (0.092) than gamma-ray-quiet blazars (0.031), with the hypothesis of the two samples being drawn from the same distribution of polarization fractions being rejected at the 3s level. We have not found any evidence that this discrepancy is related to differences in the redshift distribution, rest-frame R-band luminosity density, or the source classification. The median polarization fraction versus synchrotron-peak-frequency plot shows an envelope implying that high-synchrotron-peaked sources have a smaller range of median polarization fractions concentrated around lower values. Our gamma-ray-quiet sources show similar median polarization fractions although they are all low-synchrotron-peaked. We also find that the randomness of the polarization angle depends on the synchrotron peak frequency. For high-synchrotron-peaked sources, it tends to concentrate around preferred directions while for low-synchrotron-peaked sources, it is more variable and less likely to have a preferred direction. We propose a scenario which mediates efficient particle acceleration in shocks and increases the helical B-field component immediately downstream of the shock.
Context. We investigate the optical polarization properties of high-energy BL Lac objects using data from the RoboPol blazar monitoring program and the Nordic Optical Telescope. Aims. We wish to ...understand if there are differences between the BL Lac objects that have been detected with the current-generation TeV instruments and those objects that have not yet been detected. Methods. We used a maximum-likelihood method to investigate the optical polarization fraction and its variability in these sources. In order to study the polarization position angle variability, we calculated the time derivative of the electric vector position angle (EVPA) change. We also studied the spread in the Stokes Q/I−U/I plane and rotations in the polarization plane. Results. The mean polarization fraction of the TeV-detected BL Lacs is 5%, while the non-TeV sources show a higher mean polarization fraction of 7%. This difference in polarization fraction disappears when the dilution by the unpolarized light of the host galaxy is accounted for. The TeV sources show somewhat lower fractional polarization variability amplitudes than the non-TeV sources. Also the fraction of sources with a smaller spread in the Q/I−U/I plane and a clumped distribution of points away from the origin, possibly indicating a preferred polarization angle, is larger in the TeV than in the non-TeV sources. These differences between TeV and non-TeV samples seem to arise from differences between intermediate and high spectral peaking sources instead of the TeV detection. When the EVPA variations are studied, the rate of EVPA change is similar in both samples. We detect significant EVPA rotations in both TeV and non-TeV sources, showing that rotations can occur in high spectral peaking BL Lac objects when the monitoring cadence is dense enough. Our simulations show that we cannot exclude a random walk origin for these rotations. Conclusions. These results indicate that there are no intrinsic differences in the polarization properties of the TeV-detected and non-TeV-detected high-energy BL Lac objects. This suggests that the polarization properties are not directly related to the TeV-detection, but instead the TeV loudness is connected to the general flaring activity, redshift, and the synchrotron peak location.
Abstract
Compact symmetric objects (CSOs) are jetted active galactic nuclei (AGN) with overall projected size <1 kpc. The classification was introduced to distinguish these objects from the majority ...of compact jetted AGN in centimeter-wavelength very long baseline interferometry observations, where the observed emission is relativistically boosted toward the observer. The original classification criteria for CSOs were (i) evidence of emission on both sides of the center of activity and (ii) overall size <1 kpc. However, some relativistically boosted objects with jet axes close to the line of sight appear symmetric and have been misclassified as CSOs, thereby undermining the CSO classification. This is because two essential CSO properties, pointed out in the original papers, have been neglected: (iii) low variability and (iv) low apparent speeds along the jets. As a first step toward creating a comprehensive catalog of “bona fide” CSOs, we identify 79 bona fide CSOs, including 15 objects claimed as confirmed CSOs here for the first time, that match the CSO selection criteria. This sample of bona fide CSOs can be used for astrophysical studies of CSOs without contamination by misclassified CSOs. We show that the fraction of CSOs in complete flux density limited AGN samples with
S
5GHz
> 700 mJy is between (6.8 ± 1.6)% and (8.5 ± 1.8)%.
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