Identifying the 3FHL catalog: CTIO results

Abstract

Active galactic Nuclei (AGNs) with their relativistic jets pointed towards the observer, form a subclass of luminous gamma-ray sources commonly known as blazars. The study of blazars is essential to improve our understanding on the AGNs emission mechanisms and evolution, as well as to map the extragalactic background light. To do so, however, one needs to correctly classify and measure a redshift for a large sample of these sources. The Third {\it Fermi}--LAT Catalog of High-Energy Sources (3FHL) contains $\approx 1160$ blazars reported at energies greater than $10$\,GeV. However $\sim$25\% of these sources are unclassified and $\sim$50\% lack of redshift information. To increase the spectral completeness of the 3FHL catalog, we are working on an optical spectroscopic follow up campaign using 4--m and 8--m telescopes. In this paper, we present the results of the second part of this campaign, where we observed 23 blazars using the 4\,$m$ telescope at CTIO in Chile. We report all the 23 sources to be classified as BL Lacs, a confirmed redshift measurement for 3 sources, a redshift lower limit for 2 sources and a tentative redshift measurement for 3 sources.

Figure 2 is made up of 23 individual plot figures and while Figure 3 is made up of 8 individual plot figures. APJ accepted 01/24/2019

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• The $\gamma$-ray sky seen at X-ray energies II: the Swift hunt of Fermi BL Lac objects among unidentified gamma-ray sources