BLAZAR SPECTRAL PROPERTIES AT 74 MHz

Journal Article · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/208/2/15· OSTI ID:22273323

Massaro, F.; Funk, S. ^[1]; Giroletti, M. ^[2]; Paggi, A.; D'Abrusco, R. ^[3]; Tosti, G. ^[4]

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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)

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.

• OSTI ID: 22273323
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 208; ISSN 0067-0049; ISSN APJSA2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS
BL LACERTAE OBJECTS
EMISSION SPECTRA
GALAXY NUCLEI
MHZ RANGE
RADIO GALAXIES
RADIOASTRONOMY