William J. Potter

SPECTROSCOPY OF THE LARGEST EVER γ-RAY-SELECTED BL LAC SAMPLE

We report on spectroscopic observations covering most of the 475 BL Lacs in the second Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) catalog of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Including archival measurements (correcting several erroneous literature values) we now have spectroscopic redshifts for 44% of the BL Lacs. We establish firm lower redshift limits via intervening absorption systems and statistical lower limits via searches for host galaxies for an additional 51% of the sample leaving only 5% of the BL Lacs unconstrained. The new redshifts raise the median spectroscopic z from 0.23 to 0.33 and include redshifts as large as z = 2.471. Spectroscopic redshift minima from intervening absorbers have z = 0.70, showing a substantial fraction at large z and arguing against strong negative evolution. We find that detected BL Lac hosts are bright ellipticals with black hole masses M_• ~ 10^(8.5) – 10^9, substantially larger than the mean of optical AGNs and LAT Flat Spectrum Radio Quasar samples. A slow increase in M_• with z may be due to selection bias. We find that the power-law dominance of the optical spectrum extends to extreme values, but this does not strongly correlate with the γ-ray properties, suggesting that strong beaming is the primary cause of the range in continuum dominance.

SPECTROSCOPY OF BROAD-LINE BLAZARS FROM 1LAC

We report on optical spectroscopy of 165 Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs) in the Fermi 1LAC sample, which have helped allow a nearly complete study of this population. Fermi FSRQ show significant evidence for non-thermal emission even in the optical; the degree depends on the gamma-ray hardness. They also have smaller virial estimates of hole mass than the optical quasar sample. This appears to be largely due to a preferred (axial) view of the gamma-ray FSRQ and non-isotropic (H/R ~ 0.4) distribution of broad-line velocities. Even after correction for this bias, the Fermi FSRQ show higher mean Eddington ratios than the optical population. A comparison of optical spectral properties with Owens Valley Radio Observatory radio flare activity shows no strong correlation.

Synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission from blazar jets I: a uniform conical jet model

In the first of a series of papers investigating emission from blazar jets from radio to highenergy gamma-rays, we revisit the class of models where the jet has a uniform conical ballistic structure. We argue that by using simple developments of these models, in the context of new multi-frequency data extending to -ray energies, valuable insights may be obtained into the properties that fully realistic models must ultimately have. In this paper we consider the synchrotron and synchrotron-self-Compton emission from the jet, modelling the recent simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of BL Lac. This is the first time these components have been fitted simultaneously for a blazar using a conical jet model. In the model we evolve the electron population dynamically along the jet taking into account the synchrotron and inverse-Compton losses. The inverse-Compton emission is calculated using the Klein-Nishina cross section and a relativistic transformation into the jet frame, and we explicitly show the seed photon population. We integrate synchrotron opacity along the line of sight through the jet plasma, taking into account the emission and opacity of each section of the jet. In agreement with previous studies of radio emission, we find that a conical jet model which conserves magnetic energy produces the characteristic blazar flat radio spectrum, however, we do not require any fine-tuning of the model to achieve this. Of particular note, in our model fit to BL Lac—which at 10 37 W is a relatively low jet-power source—we find no requirement for significant re-acceleration within the jet to explain the observed spectrum.

Synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission from blazar jets - III. Compton-dominant blazars

In this paper, we develop the extended jet model of Potter and Cotter to model the simultaneous multiwavelength spectra of six Compton-dominant blazars. We include an accelerating parabolic base transitioning to a slowly decelerating conical jet with a geometry set by observations of M87 and consistent with simulations and theory. We investigate several jet models and find that the optically thick to thin synchrotron break in the radio spectrum requires the jet to first come into equipartition at large distances along the jet, consistent with the observed transition from parabolic to conical at 105Rs in the jet of M87. We confirm this result analytically and calculate the expected frequency core-shift relations for the models under consideration. We find that a parabolic jet transitioning to a ballistic conical jet at 105Rs, which starts in equipartition and becomes more particle dominated at larger distances, fits the multiwavelength data of the six blazars well, whilst an adiabatic equipartition conical section requires very large bulk Lorentz factors to reproduce the Compton dominance of the blazars. We find that all these blazars require high power (>1039W), high bulk Lorentz factor (>20) jets observed close to the line of sight (<2{ring operator}) as we expect from the blazar sequence and consistent with the results from Paper II. The inverse-Compton emission in our fits is due to inverse-Compton scattering of high-redshift cosmic microwave background photons at large distances along the jet due to the high bulk Lorentz factors of the jets. We postulate a new interpretation of the blazar sequence based on the radius of the transition region of the jet (where the jet is brightest in synchrotron emission) scaling linearly with black hole mass.

Synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission from blazar jets - IV. BL Lac type blazars and the physical basis for the blazar sequence

In this paper we investigate the properties of a sample of six BL Lacs by fitting their spectra using our inhomogeneous jet model with an accelerating, magnetically dominated, parabolic base, which transitions to a slowly decelerating conical jet with a geometry based on observations of M87. Our model is able to fit very well to the simultaneous multiwavelength spectra of all the BL Lacs including radio observations. We find that the BL Lacs have lower jet powers and bulk Lorentz factors than the sample of Compton-dominant blazars investigated in Paper III, consistent with the blazar sequence. Excitingly, we find a correlation between the radius at which the jet first comes into equipartition and the jet power, in agreement with our prediction from Paper II. We interpret this result as one of two physical scenarios: a universal jet geometry which scales linearly with black hole mass or a dichotomy in Eddington accretion rates between flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and BL Lacs. If we assume that the jet geometry of all blazars scales linearly with black hole mass then we find a plausible range of masses (10^7-10^10 solar masses). We find that the quiescent gamma-ray spectrum of Markarian 421 is best fitted by scattering of external CMB photons. We are unable to fit the spectrum using synchrotron self-Compton emission due to strong gamma-ray absorption via pair production even using a compact, rapidly decelerating, jet with a very large bulk Lorentz factor (50), as has been suggested recently. Finally, we fit to the SEDs of the four high power HSP BL Lacs recently found by Padovani et al. 2012. We find that their high peak frequency emission is caused by high maximum electron energies whilst the rest of their jet properties are typical of relatively high power BL Lacs and consistent with our predictions.

Synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission from blazar jets - II. An accelerating jet model with a geometry set by observations of M87

In this paper we develop the jet model of Potter & Cotter (2012) to include a magnetically dominated accelerating parabolic base transitioning to a slowly decelerating conical jet with a geometry set by recent radio observations of M87. We conserve relativistic energy-momentum and particle number along the jet and calculate the observed synchrotron emission from the jet by calculating the integrated line of sight synchrotron opacity through the jet in the rest frame of each section of plasma. We calculate the inverse-Compton emission from synchrotron, CMB, accretion disc, starlight, broad line region, dusty torus and narrow line region photons by transforming into the rest frame of the plasma along the jet. We fit our model to simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of the Comptondominant FSRQ type blazar PKS0227-369, with a jet geometry set by M87 and an accelerating bulk Lorentz factor consistent with simulations and theory. We investigate models in which the jet comes into equipartition at different distances along the jet and equipartition is maintained via the conversion of jet bulk kinetic energy into particle acceleration. We find that the jet must still be magnetically dominated within the BLR and cannot be in equipartition due to the severe radiative energy losses. The model fits the observations, including radio data, very well if the jet comes into equipartition outside the BLR within the dusty torus (1.5pc) or at further distances (34pc). The fits require a high power jet with a large bulk Lorentz factor observed close to the line of sight, consistent with our expectations for a Compton-dominant blazar. We find that our fit in which the jet comes into equipartition furthest along the jet, which has a jet with the geometry of M87 scaled linearly with black hole mass, has an inferred black hole mass close to previous estimates. This implies that the jet of PKS0227 might be well described by the same jet geometry as M87.

An accretion disc instability induced by a temperature sensitive α parameter

In the standard thin disc formalism the dimensionless

A Gauge-invariant approach to interactions in the dark sector

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New constraints on the structure and dynamics of black hole jets

parameter is usually assumed to be constant. However, there are good theoretical reasons for believing, as well as evidence from simulations, that

Surprises in astrophysical gasdynamics.

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