X-ray Emission of Low-Energy-Peaked BL Lacertae Objects

Presented here is an analysis of X-ray observations of the following seven low-energy-peaked BL Lacertae objects: BL Lacertae, S5 0716+71, W Comae, 3C 66A, S4 0954+65, OJ 287, and AO 0235+16. The spectral data for these objects were taken from observations by the XMM-Newton and/or Chandra X-ray observatories. These objects are being analyzed in an effort to reanalyze all XMM-Newton and Chandra data of low-energy BL Lacs, similar to the efforts of Perlman et al.[4] for high energy BL Lacs. The objects were studied in an effort to understand the nature of the X-ray and multi-waveband emissions in these objects, study the shape of the spectra, and compare the observations of low-energy-peaked BL Lacs to previous observations of these objects and also to observations of high-energy-peaked BL Lacs. Light curves and spectra were analyzed to look for evidence of spectral variability in the objects and as a comparison to previous research on these objects. Most data shows both synchrotron and Inverse-Compton emission, though only little correlation was seen between the emission strength and the spectral slope. Our data is generally well-fitted to a broken power law model with distinct bimodality seen in the first spectral index (six observations with Γ1∼0.4 and four observations with Γ1∼3.0), a break in energy between 0.6 and 1.4 keV, and a second spectral index Γ2∼2.0. None of the observations showed spectral lines, which is consistent with past results. For S5 0716+71 the XMM-Newton X-ray and optical data, along with radio data obtained from the University of Michigan Radio Astronomy Observatory (UMRAO), a spectral energy distribution was created and peak frequencies were estimated.