The Cosmic Evolution of Fermi BL Lacertae Objects

Abstract

Fermi has provided the largest sample of gamma-ray selected blazars to date. In this work we use a uniformly selected set of 211 BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects detected by it Fermi during its first year of operation. We have obtained redshift constraints for 206 out of the 211 BL Lacs in our sample making it the largest and most complete sample of BL Lacs available in the literature. We use this sample to determine the luminosity function of BL Lacs and its evolution with cosmic time. We find that for most BL Lac classes, the evolution is positive with a space density peaking at modest redshift (z~1.2). The low-luminosity, high-synchrotron peaked (HSP) BL Lacs are an exception, showing strong negative evolution, with number density increasing for z$\lesssim$0.5. Since this rise corresponds to a drop-off in the density of flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), a possible interpretation is that these HSPs represent an accretion-starved end-state of an earlier merger-driven gas-rich phase. We additionally find that the known BL Lac correlation between luminosity and photon spectral index persists after correction for the substantial observational selection effects with implications for the so called `blazar sequence'. Finally, estimating the beaming corrections to the luminosity function, we find that BL Lacs have an average Lorentz factor of $\gamma =6.1_{-0.8}^{+1.1}$, and that most are seen within 10${}^{\circ }$ of the jet axis.

accepted by ApJ

References in corpus (6)

• Roma-BZCAT: A multifrequency catalogue of Blazars
• The Imprint of The Extragalactic Background Light in the Gamma-Ray Spectra of Blazars
• The Fermi-LAT high-latitude Survey: Source Count Distributions and the Origin of the Extragalactic Diffuse Background
• The cosmological properties of AGN in the XMM-Newton Hard Bright Survey
• Photometrically Triggered Keck Spectroscopy of Fermi BL Lac Objects
• MOJAVE: Monitoring of Jets in AGN with VLBA Experiments. IV. The Parent Luminosity Function of Radio-Loud Blazars

Cited by in corpus (198)

• Relativistic Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The spectrum of isotropic diffuse gamma-ray emission between 100 MeV and 820 GeV
• The Third Catalog of Active Galactic Nuclei Detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• Background model systematics for the Fermi GeV excess
• Hidden Cosmic-Ray Accelerators as an Origin of TeV-PeV Cosmic Neutrinos
• Diffuse Neutrino Intensity from the Inner Jets of Active Galactic Nuclei: Impacts of External Photon Fields and the Blazar Sequence
• The contribution of Fermi-2LAC blazars to the diffuse TeV-PeV neutrino flux
• Constraining High-Energy Cosmic Neutrino Sources: Implications and Prospects
• The Origin of the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background and Implications for Dark-Matter Annihilation
• Open Questions in Cosmic-Ray Research at Ultrahigh Energies
• Blazar Flares as an Origin of High-Energy Cosmic Neutrinos?
• Relativistic Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei und Microquasars
• Grand Unified Neutrino Spectrum at Earth: Sources and Spectral Components
• Limits on Dark Matter Annihilation Signals from the Fermi LAT 4-year Measurement of the Isotropic Gamma-Ray Background
• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays
• Fermi/LAT broad emission line blazars
• An Optical View of BL Lacertae Objects
• The nature of the Diffuse Gamma-Ray Background
• Cascading Constraints from Neutrino Emitting Blazars: The case of TXS 0506+056
• Composition of the Fermi-LAT isotropic gamma-ray background intensity: Emission from extragalactic point sources and dark matter annihilations
• The Central Engines of Fermi Blazars
• Investigation of two Fermi-LAT gamma-ray blazars coincident with high-energy neutrinos detected by IceCube
• Determining the fraction of cosmic-ray protons at ultra-high energies with cosmogenic neutrinos
• Constraints on decaying dark matter from the extragalactic gamma-ray background
• Progress in unveiling extreme particle acceleration in persistent astrophysical jets
• The first blazar observed at z>6
• Multi-Epoch Modeling of TXS 0506+056 and Implications for Long-Term High-Energy Neutrino Emission
• Constraints on Decaying Dark Matter from the Isotropic Gamma-Ray Background
• General Physical Properties of CGRaBS Blazars
• AGN jets as the origin of UHECRs and perspectives for the detection of astrophysical source neutrinos at EeV energies
• Active galactic nuclei at gamma-ray energies
• Indications of Negative Evolution for the Sources of the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays
• Structured jets in BL Lac objects: efficient PeV neutrino factories?
• A two-zone model for blazar emission: implications for TXS 0506+056 and the neutrino event IceCube-170922A
• Diffuse $\gamma$-ray emission from unresolved BL Lac objects
• Two new catalogs of blazar candidates in the WISE infrared sky
• Energetics of High-Energy Cosmic Radiations
• Diffuse gamma-ray emission from galactic pulsars
• Ultrahigh-energy Cosmic-ray Nuclei from Black Hole Jets: Recycling Galactic Cosmic Rays through Shear Acceleration
• The 2012 flare of PG 1553+113 seen with H.E.S.S. and Fermi-LAT
• Robust Constraints and Novel Gamma-Ray Signatures of Dark Matter That Interacts Strongly With Nucleons
• The Extragalactic Gamma-ray Sky in the Fermi era
• Quasi-periodicities of BL Lac Objects
• Constraining the sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays across and above the ankle with the spectrum and composition data measured at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Tomography of the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray diffuse extragalactic signal via cross-correlations with galaxy catalogs
• Dark matter searches in the gamma-ray extragalactic background via cross-correlations with galaxy catalogues
• An emerging population of BL Lacs with extreme properties: towards a class of EBL and cosmic magnetic field probes?
• Deciphering Contributions to the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background from 2 GeV to 2 TeV
• Extragalactic star-forming galaxies with hypernovae and supernovae as high-energy neutrino and gamma-ray sources: the case of the 10 TeV neutrino data
• Mapping dark matter in the gamma-ray sky with galaxy catalogs
• Interpretation of the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux in terms of the blazar sequence
• A Case for Radio Galaxies as the Sources of IceCube's Astrophysical Neutrino Flux
• Unveiling the Gamma-ray Source Count Distribution Below the Fermi Detection Limit with Photon Statistics
• The Gamma-ray Blazar Quest: new optical spectra, state of art and future perspectives
• The Relativistic Jet Dichotomy and the End of the Blazar Sequence
• Search for gamma-ray-emitting active galactic nuclei in the Fermi-LAT unassociated sample using machine learning
• Tomographic-spectral approach for dark matter detection in the cross-correlation between cosmic shear and diffuse gamma-ray emission
• Evidence of cross-correlation between the CMB lensing and the gamma-ray sky
• Active Galactic Nuclei and the Origin of IceCube's Diffuse Neutrino Flux
• Pulsar Timing Constraints on the Fermi Massive Black-Hole Binary Blazar Population
• High-Energy Neutrinos from Active Galactic Nuclei
• Star-Forming Galaxies Significantly Contribute to the Isotropic Gamma-Ray Background
• The Infrared-Gamma-Ray Connection: A WISE View of the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Sky
• Statistical Measurement of the Gamma-ray Source-count Distribution as a Function of Energy
• The ultra-high-energy neutrino-nucleon cross section: measurement forecasts for an era of cosmic EeV-neutrino discovery
• Probing the Emission Mechanism and Magnetic Field of Neutrino Blazars with Multi-Wavelength Polarization Signatures
• A two-zone blazar radiation model for "orphan" neutrino flares
• Leptohadronic Multimessenger Modeling of 324 Gamma-Ray Blazars
• Dissecting the Gamma-Ray Background in Search of Dark Matter
• Radio Galaxies Dominate the High-Energy Diffuse Gamma-Ray Background
• Power spectrum tomography of dark matter annihilation with local galaxy distribution
• Blazars at the Cosmic Dawn
• Eddington bias for cosmic neutrino sources
• Hadronic High-energy Emission from Magnetically Arrested Disks in Radio Galaxies
• BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey: XVI. General Physical Characteristics of BAT Blazars
• The space density of z>4 blazars
• Soft gamma rays from low accreting supermassive black holes and connection to energetic neutrinos
• Complementarity of Stacking and Multiplet Constraints on the Blazar Contribution to the Cumulative High-Energy Neutrino Intensity
• Upper limits from five years of blazar observations with the VERITAS Cherenkov telescopes
• Optical archival spectra of blazar candidates of uncertain type in the 3${}^{rd}$ Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog
• Determining the core radio luminosity function of radio AGNs via copula
• Where do IceCube neutrinos come from? Hints from the diffuse gamma-ray flux
• Optical spectroscopy of BL Lac objects: TeV candidates
• Identifying Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic-Ray Accelerators with Future Ultrahigh-Energy Neutrino Detectors
• Optical spectroscopic observations of gamma-ray blazar candidates VIII: the 2016-2017 follow up campaign carried out at SPM, NOT, KPNO and SOAR telescopes
• Radio Weak BL Lac objects in the Fermi era
• Bayesian constraints on the astrophysical neutrino source population from IceCube data
• Analysis of the cumulative neutrino flux from Fermi-LAT blazar populations using 3 years of IceCube data
• An optical overview of blazars with LAMOST I: Hunting changing-look blazars and new redshift estimates
• {\it Fermi}-LAT Stacking Analysis Technique: An Application to Extreme Blazars and Prospects for their CTA Detection
• NuSTAR and multifrequency study of the two high-redshift blazars S5 0836+710 and PKS 2149-306
• The first hard X-ray spectral catalogue of Blazars observed by NuSTAR
• High redshift BL Lac objects: spectroscopy of candidates
• Fermi-LAT gamma-ray anisotropy and intensity explained by unresolved Radio-Loud Active Galactic Nuclei
• Indication of a Local "Fog" of Sub-Ankle UHECR
• Near-Equipartition Jets with Log-Parabola Electron Energy Distribution and the Blazar Spectral-Index Diagrams
• Implications of Plasma Beam Instabilities for the Statistics of the Fermi Hard Gamma-ray Blazars and the Origin of the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background
• On the origin of the soft photons of the high synchrotron peaked blazar : PKS 1424+240
• Jet efficiencies and black hole spins in jetted quasars
• Identifying the 3FHL catalog: CTIO results
• Tomographic imaging of the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray sky through cross-correlations: A wider and deeper look
• Identifying the 3FHL catalog: I. Results of the KOSMOS optical spectroscopy campaign
• Optical spectroscopic observations of gamma-ray blazar candidates. X. Results from the 2018--2019 SOAR and OAN-SPM observations of blazar candidates of uncertain type
• On ultra high energy cosmic rays and their resultant gamma rays
• Optical spectroscopic observations of low-energy counterparts of Fermi-LAT gamma-ray sources
• Curious case of the maximum rigidity distribution of cosmic-ray accelerators
• A serendipitous discovery of GeV gamma-ray emission from supernova 2004dj in a survey of nearby star-forming galaxies with Fermi-LAT
• The BL-Lac gamma-ray blazar PKS 0447-439 as a probable member of a group of galaxies at z=0.343
• Gamma-ray luminosity function of BL Lac objects and contribution to the extragalactic gamma-ray background
• Detection prospects for high energy neutrino sources from the anisotropic matter distribution in the local universe
• Characterizing the local gamma-ray Universe via angular cross-correlations
• BASS XXXIII: Swift-BAT blazars and their jets through cosmic time
• SED constraints on the highest-$z$ blazar jet: QSO J0906+6930
• The First Gamma-ray Emitting BL Lacertae Object at the Cosmic Dawn
• Population statistics of beamed sources. I: A new model for blazars
• Self-consistent model of extragalactic neutrino flux from evolving blazar population
• High energy emission component, population, and contribution to the extragalactic gamma-ray background of gamma-ray emitting radio galaxies
• Planck Lensing and Cosmic Infrared Background Cross-Correlation with Fermi-LAT: Tracing Dark Matter Signals in the Gamma-Ray Background
• Cosmological Evolution of Fermi-LAT Gamma-ray Blazars Using Novel Nonparametric Methods
• Astrophysical interpretation of the anisotropies in the unresolved gamma-ray background
• A Determination of the Gamma-ray Flux and Photon Spectral Index Distributions of Blazars from the Fermi-LAT 3LAC
• Origin of the light cosmic ray component below the ankle
• Isotropy constraints on powerful sources of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays at $10^{19}$ eV
• Constraints on UHECR sources and extragalactic magnetic fields from directional anisotropies
• Characterising the signatures of star-forming galaxies in the extra-galactic $\gamma$-ray background
• How bright can the brightest neutrino source be?
• Cosmological Tests with the FSRQ Gamma-ray Luminosity Function
• Bounds on the origin of extragalactic ultrahigh energy cosmic rays from the IceCube neutrino observations
• Can astrophysical neutrinos trace the origin of the detected ultra-high energy cosmic rays?
• Understanding the General Feature of Microvariability in $Kepler$ Blazar W2R 1926$+$42
• How far are the sources of IceCube neutrinos? Constraints from the diffuse TeV gamma-ray background
• Can BL Lac emission explain the neutrinos above 0.2 PeV?
• Angular power spectrum analysis on current and future high-energy neutrino data
• Synergies across the spectrum for particle dark matter indirect detection: how HI intensity mapping meets gamma rays
• Near-future discovery of point sources of ultra-high-energy neutrinos
• Bump-hunting in the diffuse flux of high-energy cosmic neutrinos
• The Physical Properties of Changing-look Blazars
• PeV-EeV neutrinos from gamma-ray blazars due to ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray propagation
• Flat spectrum radio quasars and BL Lacs dominate the anisotropy of the unresolved gamma-ray background
• Search for high-redshift blazars with Fermi/LAT
• Identifying the 3FHL catalog: V. Results of the CTIO-COSMOS optical spectroscopy campaign 2019
• High-Energy Gamma Rays and Neutrinos from Nearby Radio Galaxies
• The Highest-Energy Cosmic Rays Cannot be Dominantly Protons from Steady Sources
• Signals of a New Gauge Boson from IceCube and Muon $g-2$
• Faint $\gamma$-ray sources at low-redshift: the radio galaxy IC 1531
• Detecting the Elusive Blazar Counter-Jets
• Got plenty of nothing: cosmic voids as a probe of particle dark matter
• Imaging Redshift Estimates for Fermi BL Lacs
• Lower Bound on the Cosmic TeV Gamma-ray Background Radiation
• Constraints on cosmic ray loading and PeV neutrino production in blazars
• Cosmic-Ray Constraints on the Flux of Ultra-High-Energy Neutrino Event KM3-230213A
• High-Energy Neutrino Emission from Espresso-Reaccelerated Ions in Jets of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Constraints on ultracompact minihalos from the extragalactic gamma-ray background observation
• Blazar jets launched with similar energy per baryon, independently of their power
• Identifying the 3FHL Catalog. VI. Swift Observations of 3FHL Unassociated Objects with Source Classification via Machine Learning
• Constraining dark matter annihilation with HSC Low Surface Brightness Galaxies
• Gamma Rays From Blazars
• Search for GeV and X-ray flares associated with the IceCube track-like neutrinos
• NuSTAR Observations and multi-wavelength modeling of the high-redshift BL Lac Object 4FGL J2146.5-1344
• Gamma-Rays from Star Forming Activity Appear to Outshine Misaligned Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Open Universe survey of Swift-XRT GRB fields: a complete sample of HBL blazars
• Toy model for the acceleration of blazar jets
• Exploring the Most Extreme Gamma-Ray Blazars Using Broadband Spectral Energy Distributions
• The large-scale anisotropy and flux (de-)magnification of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays in the Galactic magnetic field
• Identifying the 3FHL catalog: VI. Results of the 2019 Gemini optical spectroscopy campaign
• High-Energy Neutrinos from Blazar Flares and Implications of TXS 0506+056
• Contemporaneous broadband observations of three high-redshift BL Lac Objects
• Assessing coincident neutrino detections using population models
• Constraining the pseudo-Dirac nature of neutrinos using astrophysical neutrino flavor data
• Evaluation of the performance of a CdZnTe-based soft $\gamma$-ray detector for CubeSat payloads
• XMM-NuSTAR Observation and Multiwavelength SED Modeling of Blazar 4FGL J1520.8-0348
• Astrophysical interpretation of small-scale neutrino angular correlation searches with IceCube
• Deciphering the Sources of Cosmic Neutrinos
• Follow-up Observations for IceCube-170922A: Detection of Rapid Near-Infrared Variability and Intensive Monitoring of TXS 0506+056
• Central Engine and Spectral Energy Distribution Properties of High Redshift Gamma Ray Blazars
• Active Galactic Nuclei and their demography through cosmic time
• Search for the multiwavelength counterparts to extragalactic unassociated Fermi γ-ray sources
• Constraining blazar heating with the 2<z<3 Lyman-$\alpha$ forest
• Is BZB J1450+5201 the most distant $\gamma$-ray BL Lacertae object?
• An empirical "high-confidence" candidate zone for $Fermi$ BL Lacertae objects
• Search for neutrino doublets and triplets using 11.4 years of IceCube data
• Probing a low-mass $Z^{\prime }$ gauge boson at IceCube and prospects for IceCube-Gen2
• The H.E.S.S. extragalactic sky survey with the first decade of observations
• Cosmogenic neutrinos as probes of new physics
• Magnetic Reconnection as a Potential Driver of X-ray Variability in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Source Count Distribution of Fermi LAT Gamma-Ray Blazars Using Novel Nonparametric Methods
• Constraining the baryon loading factor of AGN jets: implication from the gamma-ray emission of the Coma cluster
• Diffuse flux of PeV neutrinos from centrifugally accelerated protons in active galactic nuclei
• Simultaneously unveiling the EBL and intrinsic spectral parameters of gamma-ray sources with Hamiltonian Monte Carlo
• A new sample of X-ray selected Swift/SDSS faint blazars and blazar candidates
• TeV Gamma-Rays from the Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nucleus NGC 4278: Implications for the Diffuse Neutrino Background
• Classification of Fermi-LAT blazars with Bayesian neural networks
• Performance Evaluation of a silicon-based 6U Cubesat detector for soft $\gamma$-ray astronomy
• Isotropic diffuse and extragalactic $\gamma$-ray background: emission from extragalactic sources vs dark matter annihilating particles
• The blazar sequence revised
• Quantitative evaluation of the hypothesis that BL Lacertae objects are QSO remnants
• The Gamma-ray Luminosity Function of Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasars
• Wiener filtering and multi-tracer techniques for dark matter cross-correlations between gamma-ray emission and galaxy catalogs