Optical Spectroscopic Observations of Gamma-Ray Blazar Candidates. VI. Further Observations from TNG, WHT, OAN, SOAR, and Magellan Telescopes

Journal
Date Issued
2016
Author(s)
Álvarez Crespo, N.
•
Massaro, F.
•
Milisavljevic, D.
•
•
Chavushyan, V.
•
Patiño-Álvarez, V.
•
•
Jiménez-Bailón, E.
•
Strader, J.
•
Chomiuk, L.
•
Katagiri, H.
•
Kagaya, M.
•
Cheung, C. C.
•
•
D'Abrusco, R.
•
Ricci, F.
•
La Franca, F.
•
Smith, Howard A.
•
Tosti, G.
DOI
Abstract
Blazars, one of the most extreme classes of active galaxies, constitute so far the largest known population of γ-ray sources, and their number is continuously growing in the Fermi catalogs. However, in the latest release of the Fermi catalog there is still a large fraction of sources that are classified as blazar candidates of uncertain type (BCUs) for which optical spectroscopic observations are necessary to confirm their nature and their associations. In addition, about one-third of the γ-ray point sources listed in the Third Fermi-LAT Source Catalog (3FGL) are still unassociated and lacking an assigned lower-energy counterpart. Since 2012 we have been carrying out an optical spectroscopic campaign to observe blazar candidates to confirm their nature. In this paper, the sixth of the series, we present optical spectroscopic observations for 30 γ-ray blazar candidates from different observing programs we carried out with the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, William Herschel Telescope, Observatorio Astronómico Nacional, Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope, and Magellan Telescopes. We found that 21 out of 30 sources investigated are BL Lac objects, while the remaining targets are classified as flat-spectrum radio quasars showing the typical broad emission lines of normal quasi-stellar objects. We conclude that our selection of γ-ray blazar candidates based on their multifrequency properties continues to be a successful way to discover potential low-energy counterparts of the Fermi unidentified gamma-ray sources and to confirm the nature of BCUs.
Volume
151
Issue
4
Start page
1
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
0004-6256
Ads BibCode
2016AJ....151...95A
Rights
open.access
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