The prediction of the spectral properties of BL Lac samples

M. J M Marchã, I. W A Browne

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    The distribution of infrared colours (J - K) of radio- and X-ray-selected BL Lacs is predicted and compared with the observations of two existing samples of BL Lac objects. We make use of the 'recognition analysis' formalism introduced in previous papers and show how the infrared spectral properties for BL Lacs are well predicted by adding a galaxy and BL Lac component in different proportions. We also calculate the distributions of the ratio of galaxy light to BL Lac light for the two samples of BL Lac objects and find that the criteria traditionally used for the selection of BL Lac samples miss objects, many of which could be found if smaller observing apertures were used in the identification process.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)72-78
    Number of pages6
    JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
    Volume279
    Issue number1
    Publication statusPublished - 1996

    Keywords

    • BL Lacertae objects: general
    • Galaxies: active
    • Infrared: galaxies
    • Methods: statistical

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