Spectral energy distributions of a large sample of BL Lacertae objects

Abstract

We have collected a large amount of multifrequency data for the objects in the Metsahovi Radio Observatory BL Lacertae sample and computed their spectral energy distributions (SED). This is the first time the SEDs of BL Lacs have been studied with a sample of over 300 objects. The synchrotron components of the SEDs were fitted with a parabolic function to determine the synchrotron peak frequency. We checked the dependence between luminosities at several frequency bands and synchrotron peak frequency to test the blazar sequence scenario, which states that the source luminosity depends on the location of the synchrotron peak. We also calculated broad band spectral indices and plotted them against each other and the peak frequency. The range of peak frequencies in our study was considerably extended compared to previous studies. There were 22 objects for which logν_{peak}>19. The data shows that at 5 GHz, 37 GHz and 5500 A there is negative correlation between luminosity and nu_{peak}. There is no significant correlation between source luminosity at synchrotron peak and peak frequency. Several low radio luminosity-low energy peaked BL Lacs were found. The negative correlation between broad band spectral indices and nu_{peak} is also significant, although there is substantial scatter. Therefore we find that neither alpha_{rx} nor alpha_{ro} can be used to determine the synchrotron peak of BL Lacs. On the grounds of our results we conclude that the blazar sequence scenario is not valid. In all our results the BL Lac population is continuous with no hint of the bimodality of the first BL Lac samples.

10 + 27 pages, 13 figures, accepted to A&A

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