Issue |
A&A
Volume 529, May 2011
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A162 | |
Number of page(s) | 10 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201116541 | |
Published online | 25 April 2011 |
Polarimetry of optically selected BL Lacertae candidates from the SDSS⋆,⋆⋆,⋆⋆⋆,†
1
ZAH, Landessternwarte Heidelberg, Königstuhl,
69117
Heidelberg,
Germany
e-mail: jheidt@lsw.uni-heidelberg.de
2
Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA), University of
Turku, Väisäläntie
20, 21500
Piikkiö,
Finland
Received: 18 January 2011
Accepted: 18 February 2011
We present and discuss polarimetric observations of 182 targets drawn from an optically selected sample of 240 probable BL Lac candidates out of the SDSS compiled by Collinge et al. (2005, AJ, 129, 2542). In contrast to most other BL Lac candidate samples extracted from the SDSS, its radio- and/or X-ray properties have not been taken into account for its derivation. Thus, because its selection is based on optical properties alone, it may be less prone to selection effects inherent in other samples derived at different frequencies, so it offers a unique opportunity to extract the first unbiased BL Lac luminosity function that is suitably large in size.
We found 124 out of 182 targets (68%) to be polarized, 95 of the polarized targets (77%) to be highly polarized (>4%). The low-frequency peaked BL Lac candidates in the sample are on average only slightly more polarized than the high-frequency peaked ones. Compared to earlier studies, we found a high duty cycle in high polarization ( to be >4% polarized) in high-frequency peaked BL Lac candidates. This may come from our polarization analysis, which minimizes the contamination by host galaxy light.
No evidence of radio-quiet BL Lac objects in the sample was found.
Our observations show that the probable sample of BL Lac candidates of Collinge et al. (2005) indeed contains a large number of bona fide BL Lac objects. High S/N spectroscopy and deep X-ray observations are required to construct the first luminosity function of optically selected BL Lac objects and to test more stringently for any radio-quiet BL Lac objects in the sample.
Key words: polarization / techniques: polarimetric / BL Lacertae objects: general / galaxies: active
Based on observations collected with the NTT on La Silla (Chile) operated by the European Southern Observatory in the course of the observing proposal 082.B-0133.
Based on observations collected at the Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán (CAHA), operated jointly by the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC).
Based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias.
Table 1 is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/529/A162
© ESO, 2011
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