Published October 1, 2013 | Version v1
Journal article

BLAZAR SPECTRAL PROPERTIES AT 74 MHz

  • 1. SLAC National Laboratory and Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States)
  • 2. INAF Istituto di Radioastronomia, via Gobetti 101, I-40129 Bologna (Italy)
  • 3. Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
  • 4. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Perugia, I-06123 Perugia (Italy)

Description

Blazars are the most extreme class of active galactic nuclei. Despite a previous investigation at 102 MHz for a small sample of BL Lac objects and our recent analysis of blazars detected in the Westerbork Northern Sky Survey, a systematic study of the blazar spectral properties at frequencies below 100 MHz has been never carried out. In this paper, we present the first analysis of the radio spectral behavior of blazars based on the recent Very Large Array Low-frequency Sky Survey (VLSS) at 74 MHz. We search for blazar counterparts in the VLSS catalog, confirming that they are detected at 74 MHz. We then show that blazars present radio-flat spectra (i.e., radio spectral indices of ∼0.5) when evaluated, which also about an order of magnitude in frequency lower than previous analyses. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings in the context of the blazars-radio galaxies connection since the low-frequency radio data provide a new diagnostic tool to verify the expectations of the unification scenario for radio-loud active galaxies

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/208/2/15

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series
Journal Volume
208
Journal Issue
2
Journal Page Range
[7 p.]
ISSN
0067-0049
CODEN
APJSA2

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
45094556
Subject category
S79: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY;
Descriptors DEI
ASTROPHYSICS; BL LACERTAE OBJECTS; EMISSION SPECTRA; GALAXY NUCLEI; MHZ RANGE; RADIO GALAXIES; RADIOASTRONOMY
Descriptors DEC
ASTRONOMY; COSMIC RADIO SOURCES; FREQUENCY RANGE; GALAXIES; PHYSICS; SPECTRA