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Issue A&A Volume 381, Number 1, January I 2002 Page(s) 1 - 5 Section Extragalactic astronomy DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:20011356

A&A 381, 1-5 (2002)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20011356

Optical periodicity analysis for radio selected BL Lacertae objects (RBLs)

J. H. Fan^{1, 2, 3}, R. G. Lin², G. Z. Xie⁴, L. Zhang³, D. C. Mei³, C. Y. Su⁵ and Z. M. Peng<sup>3

1</sup>  National Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China
²  Center for Astrophysics, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510400, PR China
³  Department of Physics, Yunnan University, Kunming, PR China
⁴  Yunnan Observatory, Chinese Academy of Science, Kunming 650011, PR China
⁵  Department of Physics, Guangdong Industry University, Guangzhou, PR China

(Received 15 December 1999 / Accepted 9 August 2001 )

Abstract
The recently compiled historical lightcurves of 10 RBLs are probed with the Jurkevich method in a search for periodic behaviour. Monte Carlo simulations of artificial lightcurves are used to detect spurious periods and evaluate sources of error in this kind of analysis. Additional analysis based on the discrete correlation function (DCF) provides confirmation for those periods that could have physical significance. We find that periods in the range 1.4-17.85 yr are present in nine objects of the sample.

Key words: methods: data analysis -- galaxies: BL Lacertae objects: general -- galaxies: photometry

Offprint request: J. H. Fan, jhfan@guangztc.edu.cn

SIMBAD Objects

© ESO 2002

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