Searching for new gamma-ray blazar candidates in the 3rd Palermo BAT Hard X-ray Catalog with WISE

Abstract

We searched for gamma-ray blazar candidates among the 382 unidentified hard X-ray sources of the 3rd Palermo BAT Catalog (3PBC) obtained from the analysis of 66 months of SWIFT-BAT survey data and listing 1586 sources. We adopted a recently developed association method based on the peculiar infrared colors which characterize the gamma-ray blazars included in the second catalog of active galactic nuclei detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (2LAC). We used this method exploiting the data of the all-sky survey performed by the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to establish correspondences between unidentified 3PBC sources and WISE gamma-ray blazar candidates located within the BAT positional uncertainty region at 99% confidence level. We obtained a preliminary list of candidates for which we analysed all the available data in the SWIFT archive to complement the information in the literature and in the radio, infrared and optical catalogs with the information on their optical-UV and soft X-ray emission. Requiring the presence of radio and soft X-ray counterparts consistent with the infrared positions of the selected WISE sources, as well as a blazar-like radio morphology, we finally obtained a list of 24 gamma-ray blazar candidates.

13 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, ApJS accepted for publication (version pre-proof corrections)

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Cited by in corpus (17)

• BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey - V. X-ray properties of the Swift/BAT 70-month AGN catalog
• The 105 month Swift-BAT all-sky hard X-ray survey
• The WISE Blazar-Like Radio-Loud Sources: An All-Sky Catalog Of Candidate Gamma-Ray Blazars
• Connection between optical and gamma-ray variability in blazars
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• Unveiling the nature of the unidentified gamma-ray sources IV: the $\text{Swift}$ catalog of potential X-ray counterparts
• The Gamma-ray Blazar Quest: new optical spectra, state of art and future perspectives
• INTEGRAL/IBIS 17-yr hard X-ray all-sky survey
• A Compton thick AGN in the barred spiral NGC 4785
• Radio Weak BL Lac objects in the Fermi era
• Swift observations of unidentified radio sources in the revised Third Cambridge Catalogue
• The $\gamma$-ray sky seen at X-ray energies I. Searching for the connection between X-rays and $\gamma$-rays in Fermi BL Lac objects
• BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey -- XIII. The nature of the most luminous obscured AGN in the low-redshift universe
• The $\gamma$-ray sky seen at X-ray energies II: the Swift hunt of Fermi BL Lac objects among unidentified gamma-ray sources
• A New Multi-Wavelength Census of Blazars
• A Swift X-ray view of the SMS4 sample -- X-ray properties of 31 quasars and radio galaxies
• SRG/ART-XC all-sky X-ray survey: Catalog of sources detected during the first year