STScI Preprint #1213

The Deep X-Ray Radio Blazar Survey (DXRBS) I. Methods and First Results

Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile; Kitt Peak National Observatory, Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, and the Australian Telescope National Facility

We have undertaken a survey of archived, pointed ROSAT PSPC data for blazars by correlating the ROSAT WGACAT database with several publicly available radio catalogs, restricting our candidate list to serendipitous flat radio spectrum sources (_r  0.70, where S   ^-). Here we discuss our survey methods, identification procedure and first results. Our survey is found to be ~95% efficient at finding flat-spectrum radio-loud quasars (FSRWs, 59 of our first 85 IDs) and BL Lacartae objects (22 of our first 85 IDs), a figure which is comparable to or greater that that achieved by other radio and X-ray survey techniques.

The identifications presented here show that all previous samples of blazars (even when taken together) did not representatively survey the blazar population, missing critical regions of (L_X, L_R) parameter space within which large fractions of the blazar population lie. Particularly important is the identification of a large population of FSRQs ( 25% of DXRBS FSRQs) with ratios of X-ray to radio luminosity  10^-6 (_rx 0.78). In addition, due to our greater sensitivity, DXRBS has already more than doubled the number of FSRQs in complete samples with 5 GHz (radio) luminosities between 10^31.5 and 10^33.5 erg s^-1 Hz^-1 and fills in the region of parameter space between X-ray selected and radio-selected samples of BL Lacs. DXRBS is the very first sample to contain statistically significant numbers of blazars at low luminosities, approaching what should be the lower end of the FSRQ luminosity function.

Status:

Appeared in: The Astronomical Journal, 115:1253-1294, 1998

Affiliations:

¹) Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

²) Visiting astronomer at Kitt Peak National Observatory

³) Visiting astronomer at Cerro Tololo Intraamerican Observatory

⁴) Dipartimento di Fisica, II Università di Roma "Tor Vergata", Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Roma, Italy

⁵) Visiting astronomer at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile

⁶) Currently on leave at Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

⁷) SAX Science Data Center, ASI, Viale Regina Margherita 202 I-00198, Italy

⁸) Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, Mail Code 660.2, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA

⁹) Presently at: Pennsylvania State University, Department of Astronomy, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16803, USA

¹⁰) School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

¹¹) Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, PO Box 76, Epping NSW 2121, Australia