Bibcode
DOI
Urry, C. Megan; Scarpa, Riccardo; O'Dowd, Matthew; Falomo, Renato; Pesce, Joseph E.; Treves, Aldo
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 532, Issue 2, pp. 816-829.
Fecha de publicación:
4
2000
Revista
Número de citas
245
Número de citas referidas
216
Descripción
We have used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFPC2 camera to survey 132
BL Lac objects comprising seven complete radio-, X-ray-, and optically
selected samples. We obtained useful images for 110 targets spanning the
redshift range 0<~z<~1.3. These represent an unbiased subsample of
the original 132 since they were snapshots selected to fill random holes
in the HST schedule. The exposure times ranged from a few hundred to
~1000 s, increasing with redshift. Most images were taken in the F702W
filter; those already observed in F814W during Cycle 5 were reobserved
in F606W to give broader wavelength coverage. The data were analyzed
uniformly, and both statistical and systematic errors were estimated
(the latter dominate). In 2/3 of the BL Lac images, host galaxies are
detected, including nearly all for z<0.5 (58 of 63). In contrast,
only one-quarter of the BL Lac objects with z>0.5 (six of 22) were
resolved because of the relatively short exposure times, and these tend
to be very luminous host galaxies. The highest redshift host galaxy
detected is in a BL Lac object at z=0.664. HST data add critical
morphological information in the range a few tenths to a few arcseconds.
In 58 of the 72 resolved host galaxies, a de Vaucouleurs profile is
significantly preferred, at >~99% confidence, over a pure exponential
disk; the two fits are comparable in the remaining 14 cases because of
their generally lower signal-to-noise ratios. These results limit the
number of disk systems to at most 8% of BL Lac objects (at 99%
confidence) and are consistent with all BL Lac host galaxies being
ellipticals. The detected host galaxies are luminous ellipticals with a
median absolute K-corrected magnitude of MR~-23.7+/-0.6 mag
(rms dispersion), at least 1 mag brighter than M* and
comparable to brightest cluster galaxies. The galaxy morphologies are
generally smooth and undisturbed, with small or negligible ellipticities
(ɛ<~0.2). The half-light surface brightness is anticorrelated
with half-light radius in quantitatively the same way as other
elliptical galaxies, indicating that apart from their highly active
nuclei, BL Lac objects appear to be absolutely normal ellipticals. There
is no correlation between host galaxy and observed nuclear magnitude or
estimated jet power corrected for beaming. If black hole mass is
correlated linearly with bulge mass in general, this implies a large
range in Eddington ratio. The host galaxies of the radio-selected and
X-ray-selected BL Lac objects are comparable in both morphology and
luminosity, strongly suggesting that nuclear properties do not have a
dramatic effect on large-scale host galaxy properties, or vice versa. BL
Lac objects have extended radio powers and host galaxy magnitudes very
much like those of FR I galaxies, and quite distinct from FR II's, which
instead are more similar to quasars. Thus the present data strongly
support the unification picture with FR I galaxies constituting the bulk
of the parent population of BL Lac objects.