Search

Utilizing the latest and the most sensitive radio and optical catalogs, we completed a new blazar candidate catalog, Blazar Radio and Optical Survey (BROS), which includes 88,211 sources located at decl. δ > −40° and outside the galactic plane (). We list compact flat-spectrum radio sources of α > −0.6 (α is defined as Fν ∝ να) from 0.15 GHz TGSS to 1.4 GHz NVSS catalogs. We further identify optical counterparts of the selected sources by cross-matching with Pan-STARRS1 photometric data. Color–color and color–magnitude plots for the selected BROS sources clearly show two distinct populations, a "quasar-like" population consisting of both flat-spectrum radio quasars and BL Lac type objects. On the other hand, an "elliptical-like" population of mostly BL Lac type objects is buried in the elliptical galaxy. The latter population is also reported in previous catalogs, but the BROS catalog provided a new larger sample of this population, due to the lower radio flux threshold of our selection. Model calculations show that the "elliptical-like" population consists of elliptical galaxies located at redshift z ≲ 0.5, which is also supported by the logN-logS distribution of the power-law index of 1.49 ± 0.05. This BROS catalog is useful for identifying the electromagnetic counterparts of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and PeV neutrinos recently detected by IceCube, as well as nearby BL Lac objects detectable by future high-sensitivity TeV telescopes, such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gamma-ray-detected blazar 3C 454.3 exhibits dramatic flux and polarization variations in the optical and near-infrared bands. In 2010 December, the object emitted a very bright outburst. We monitored it for approximately four years (including the 2010 outburst) by optical and near-infrared photopolarimetry. During the 2010 outburst, the object emitted two rapid, redder brightenings, at which the polarization degrees (PDs) in both bands increased significantly and the bands exhibited a frequency-dependent polarization. The observed frequency-dependent polarization leads us to propose that the polarization vector is composed of two vectors. Therefore, we separate the observed polarization vectors into short- and long-term components that we attribute to the emissions of the rapid brightenings and the outburst that varied the timescale of days and months, respectively. The estimated PD of the short-term component is greater than the maximum observed PD and is close to the theoretical maximum PD. We constrain the bulk Lorentz factors and inclination angles between the jet axis and the line of sight from the estimated PDs. In this case, the inclination angle of the emitting region of short-term component from the first rapid brightening should be equal to 90°, because the estimated PD of the short-term component was approximately equal to the theoretical maximum PD. Thus, the Doppler factor at the emitting region of the first rapid brightening should be equal to the bulk Lorentz factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]