- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/199/31
- Title:
- Fermi LAT second source catalog (2FGL)
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/199/31
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the second catalog of high-energy {gamma}-ray sources detected by the Large Area Telescope (LAT), the primary science instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi), derived from data taken during the first 24 months of the science phase of the mission, which began on 2008 August 4. Source detection is based on the average flux over the 24 month period. The second Fermi-LAT catalog (2FGL) includes source location regions, defined in terms of elliptical fits to the 95% confidence regions and spectral fits in terms of power-law, exponentially cutoff power-law, or log-normal forms. Also included are flux measurements in five energy bands and light curves on monthly intervals for each source. Twelve sources in the catalog are modeled as spatially extended. We provide a detailed comparison of the results from this catalog with those from the first Fermi-LAT catalog (1FGL). Although the diffuse Galactic and isotropic models used in the 2FGL analysis are improved compared to the 1FGL catalog, we attach caution flags to 162 of the sources to indicate possible confusion with residual imperfections in the diffuse model. The 2FGL catalog contains 1873 sources detected and characterized in the 100MeV to 100GeV range of which we consider 127 as being firmly identified and 1171 as being reliably associated with counterparts of known or likely {gamma}-ray-producing source classes.
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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/218/23
- Title:
- Fermi LAT third source catalog (3FGL)
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/218/23
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the third Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) source catalog (3FGL) of sources in the 100MeV-300GeV range. Based on the first 4yr of science data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope mission, it is the deepest yet in this energy range. Relative to the Second Fermi LAT catalog, the 3FGL catalog incorporates twice as much data, as well as a number of analysis improvements, including improved calibrations at the event reconstruction level, an updated model for Galactic diffuse {gamma}-ray emission, a refined procedure for source detection, and improved methods for associating LAT sources with potential counterparts at other wavelengths. The 3FGL catalog includes 3033 sources above 4{sigma} significance, with source location regions, spectral properties, and monthly light curves for each. Of these, 78 are flagged as potentially being due to imperfections in the model for Galactic diffuse emission. Twenty-five sources are modeled explicitly as spatially extended, and overall 238 sources are considered as identified based on angular extent or correlated variability (periodic or otherwise) observed at other wavelengths. For 1010 sources we have not found plausible counterparts at other wavelengths. More than 1100 of the identified or associated sources are active galaxies of the blazar class; several other classes of non-blazar active galaxies are also represented in the 3FGL. Pulsars represent the largest Galactic source class. From source counts of Galactic sources we estimate that the contribution of unresolved sources to the Galactic diffuse emission is ~3% at 1GeV.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/IX/60
- Title:
- Fermi superluminal sources
- Short Name:
- IX/60
- Date:
- 07 Mar 2022 07:19:31
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Paper I (2019SCPMA..62l9811X): Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have been attracting research attention due to their special observable properties. Specifically, a majority of AGNs are detected by Fermi-LAT missions, but not by Fermi-LAT, which raises the question of weather any differences exist between the two. To answer this issue, we compile a sample of 291 superluminal AGNs (189 FDSs and 102 non-FDSs) from available multi-wavelength radio, optical, and X-ray (or even {gamma}-ray) data and Doppler factors and proper motion ({mu}) (or apparent velocity ({beta}app)); calculated the apparent velocity from their proper motion, Lorentz factor ({GAMMA}), viewing angle ({phi}) and co-moving viewing angle ({phi}co) for the sources with available Doppler factor ({delta}); and performed some statistical analyses for both types. Our study indicated that (1) in terms of average values, FDSs have higher proper motions ({mu}), apparent velocities ({beta}_app_), Doppler factor ({delta}), Lorentz factor ({GAMMA}), and smaller viewing angle ({phi}). Nevertheless, there is no clear difference in co-moving viewing angles ({phi}_co_). The results reveal that FDSs show stronger beaming effect than non-FDSs. (2) In terms of correlations: 1) both sources show positive, mutually correlated fluxes, which become closer in de-beamed fluxes; 2) with respect to apparent velocities and {gamma}-ray luminosity, there is a tendency for the brighter sources to have higher velocities; 3) with regard to viewing angle and observed {gamma}-ray luminosity, log{phi}=-(0.23+/-0.04)logL{gamma}+(11.14+/-1.93), while for the co-moving viewing angle and the intrinsic {gamma}-ray luminosity, log{phi}_co_=(0.09+/-0.01)logL^in^_(gamma)_-(1.73+/-0.48). These correlations show that the luminous {gamma}-ray sources have smaller viewing angles and a larger co-moving viewing angle, which indicate a stronger beaming effect in {gamma}-ray emissions. Paper II (2020AN....341..462X): In our previous work in Xiao et al. (SCPMA, 2019, 62, 129811), we suggested that six superluminal sources could be {gamma}-ray candidates, and in fact, five of them have been confirmed in the fourth Fermi-LAT source catalog (4FGL). In this work, based on the 4FGL, we report a sample of 229 Fermi detected superluminal sources (FDSs), including 40 new FDSs and 62 non-FDSs. Thus, we believe that all superluminal sources should have {gamma}-ray emissions, and superluminal motion could also be a clue to detect {gamma}-ray emission from active galactic nuclei. We present a new approach of Doppler factor estimate through the study of the {gamma}-ray luminosity (L{gamma}) and of the viewing angle ({phi}). Paper III (2020A&C....3200387X): In this work, Machine Learning (ML) methods are used to efficiently identify the unassociated sources and the Blazar Candidate of Uncertain types (BCUs) in the Fermi-LAT Third Source Catalog (3FGL). The aims are twofold: (1) to distinguish the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) from others (non-AGNs) in the unassociated sources; (2) to identify BCUs into BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) or Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs). Two dimensional reduction methods are presented to decrease computational complexity, where Random Forest (RF), Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Generative Adversarial Nets (GAN) are trained as individual models. In order to achieve better performance, the ensemble technique is further explored. It is also demonstrated that grid search method is of help to choose the hyperparameters of models and decide the final predictor, by which we have identified 748 AGNs out of 1010 unassociated sources, with an accuracy of 97.04%. Within the 573 BCUs, 326 have been identified as BL Lacs and 247 as FSRQs, with an accuracy of 92.13%.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/626/A60
- Title:
- F-GAMMA 2.64-43GHz radio data over 2007-2015
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/626/A60
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The advent of the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope with its superb sensitivity, energy range, and unprecedented capability to monitor the entire 4{pi} sky within less than 2-3 h, introduced a new standard in time domain gamma-ray astronomy. Among several breakthroughs, Fermi has - for the first time - made it possible to investigate, with high cadence, the variability of the broadband spectral energy distribution (SED), especially for active galactic nuclei (AGN). This is necessary for understanding the emission and variability mechanisms in such systems. To explore this new avenue of extragalactic physics the Fermi-GST AGN Multi-frequency Monitoring Alliance (F-GAMMA) programme undertook the task of conducting nearly monthly, broadband radio monitoring of selected blazars, which is the dominant population of the extragalactic gamma-ray sky, from January 2007 to January 2015. In this work we release all the multi-frequency light curves from 2.64 to 43 GHz and first order derivative data products after all necessary post-measurement corrections and quality checks. Along with the demanding task to provide the radio part of the broadband SED in monthly intervals, the F-GAMMA programme was also driven by a series of well-defined fundamental questions immediately relevant to blazar physics. On the basis of the monthly sampled radio SEDs, the F-GAMMA aimed at quantifying and understanding the possible multiband correlation and multi-frequency radio variability, spectral evolution and the associated emission, absorption and variability mechanisms. The location of the gamma-ray production site and the correspondence of structural evolution to radio variability have been among the fundamental aims of the programme. Finally, the programme sought to explore the characteristics and dynamics of the multi-frequency radio linear and circular polarisation. The F-GAMMA ran two main and tightly coordinated observing programmes. The Effelsberg 100 m telescope programme monitoring 2.64, 4.85, 8.35, 10.45, 14.6, 23.05, 32, and 43 GHz, and the IRAM 30 m telescope programme observing at 86.2, 142.3, and 228.9 GHz. The nominal cadence was one month for a total of roughly 60 blazars and targets of opportunity. In a less regular manner the F-GAMMA programme also ran an occasional monitoring with the APEX 12 m telescope at 345 GHz. We only present the Effelsberg dataset in this paper. The higher frequencies data are released elsewhere. The current release includes 155 sources that have been observed at least once by the F-GAMMA programme. That is, the initial sample, the revised sample after the first Fermi release, targets of opportunity, and sources observed in collaboration with a monitoring programme following up on Planck satellite observations. For all these sources we release all the quality-checked Effelsberg multi-frequency light curves. The suite of post-measurement corrections and flagging and a thorough system diagnostic study and error analysis is discussed as an assessment of the data reliability. We also release data products such as flux density moments and spectral indices. The effective cadence after the quality flagging is around one radio SED every 1.3 months. The coherence of each radio SED is around 40 min. The released dataset includes more than 3x104 measurements for some 155 sources over a broad range of frequencies from 2.64 GHz to 43 GHz obtained between 2007 and 2015. The median fractional error at the lowest frequencies (2.64-10.45 GHz) is below 2%. At the highest frequencies (14.6-43 GHz) with limiting factor of the atmospheric conditions, the errors range from 3% to 9%, respectively.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/493/1926
- Title:
- 4FGL blazar classification neural network
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/493/1926
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) has detected more than 5000 gamma-ray sources in its first 8 years of operation. More than 3000 of them are blazars. About 60 per cent of the Fermi-LAT blazars are classified as BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) or Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs), while the rest remain of uncertain type. The goal of this study was to classify those blazars of uncertain type, using a supervised machine learning method based on an artificial neural network, by comparing their properties to those of known gamma-ray sources. Probabilities for each of 1329 uncertain blazars to be a BL Lac or FSRQ are obtained. Using 90 per cent precision metric, 801 can be classified as BL Lacs and 406 as FSRQs while 122 still remain unclassified. This approach is of interest because it gives a fast preliminary classification of uncertain blazars. We also explored how different selections of training and testing samples affect the classification and discuss the meaning of network outputs.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/217/4
- Title:
- 2FGL sources observed between 5-9GHz
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/217/4
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the results of an all-sky radio survey between 5 and 9GHz of sky areas surrounding all unassociated {gamma}-ray objects listed in the Fermi Large Area Telescope Second Source Catalog (2FGL). The goal of these observations is to find all new {gamma}-ray active galactic nucleus (AGN) associations with radio sources >10mJy at 8GHz. We observed with the Very Large Array and the Australia Telescope Compact Array the areas around unassociated sources, providing localizations of weak radio point sources found in 2FGL fields at arcmin scales. Then we followed-up a subset of those with the Very Long Baseline and the Long Baseline Arrays to confirm detections of radio emission on parsec-scales. We quantified association probabilities based on known statistics of source counts and assuming a uniform distribution of background sources. In total we found 865 radio sources at arcsec scales as candidates for association and detected 95 of 170 selected for follow-up observations at milliarcsecond resolution. Based on this we obtained firm associations for 76 previously unknown {gamma}-ray AGNs. Comparison of these new AGN associations with the predictions from using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer color-color diagram shows that half of the associations are missed. We found that 129 out of 588 observed {gamma}-ray sources at arcmin scales not a single radio continuum source was detected above our sensitivity limit within the 3{sigma} {gamma}-ray localization. These "empty" fields were found to be particularly concentrated at low Galactic latitudes. The nature of these Galactic {gamma}-ray emitters is not yet determined.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/820/8
- Title:
- 3FGL sources statistical classifications
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/820/8
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We apply a number of statistical and machine learning techniques to classify and rank gamma-ray sources from the Third Fermi Large Area Telescope Source Catalog (3FGL), according to their likelihood of falling into the two major classes of gamma-ray emitters: pulsars (PSR) or active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Using 1904 3FGL sources that have been identified/associated with AGNs (1738) and PSR (166), we train (using 70% of our sample) and test (using 30%) our algorithms and find that the best overall accuracy (>96%) is obtained with the Random Forest (RF) technique, while using a logistic regression (LR) algorithm results in only marginally lower accuracy. We apply the same techniques on a subsample of 142 known gamma-ray pulsars to classify them into two major subcategories: young (YNG) and millisecond pulsars (MSP). Once more, the RF algorithm has the best overall accuracy (~90%), while a boosted LR analysis comes a close second. We apply our two best models (RF and LR) to the entire 3FGL catalog, providing predictions on the likely nature of unassociated sources, including the likely type of pulsar (YNG or MSP). We also use our predictions to shed light on the possible nature of some gamma-ray sources with known associations (e.g., binaries, supernova remnants/pulsar wind nebulae). Finally, we provide a list of plausible X-ray counterparts for some pulsar candidates, obtained using Swift, Chandra, and XMM. The results of our study will be of interest both for in-depth follow-up searches (e.g., pulsar) at various wavelengths and for broader population studies.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/248/23
- Title:
- 4FGL sources with IR/Rad associations
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/248/23
- Date:
- 09 Nov 2021 09:30:22
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Associating {gamma}-ray sources to their low-energy counterparts is one of the major challenges of modern {gamma}-ray astronomy. In the context of the Fourth Fermi Large Area Telescope Source Catalog (4FGL), the associations rely mainly on parameters such as apparent magnitude, integrated flux, and angular separation between the {gamma}-ray source and its low-energy candidate counterpart. In this work, we propose a new use of the likelihood ratio (LR) and a complementary supervised learning technique to associate {gamma}-ray blazars in 4FGL, based only on spectral parameters such as the {gamma}-ray photon index, mid-infrared colors, and radio-loudness. In the LR approach, we crossmatch the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Blazar-Like Radio-Loud Sources catalog with 4FGL and compare the resulting candidate counterparts with the sources listed in the {gamma}-ray blazar locus to compute an association probability (AP) for 1138 counterparts. In the supervised learning approach, we train a random forest algorithm with 869 high-confidence blazar associations and 711 fake associations and then compute an AP for 1311 candidate counterparts. A list with all 4FGL blazar candidates of uncertain type associated by our method is provided to guide future optical spectroscopic follow-up observations.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/161/154
- Title:
- 3FGL X-ray Analysis and ML
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/161/154
- Date:
- 07 Mar 2022 07:09:03
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We conduct X-ray spectral fits on 184 likely counterparts to Fermi-LAT 3FGL unassociated sources. Characterization and classification of these sources allows for more complete population studies of the high-energy sky. Most of these X-ray spectra are well fit by an absorbed power law model, as expected for a population dominated by blazars and pulsars. A small subset of 7 X-ray sources have spectra unlike the power law expected from a blazar or pulsar and may be linked to coincident stars or background emission. We develop a multiwavelength machine learning classifier to categorize unassociated sources into pulsars and blazars using gamma- and X-ray observations. Training a random forest procedure with known pulsars and blazars, we achieve a cross-validated classification accuracy of 98.6%. Applying the random forest routine to the unassociated sources returned 126 likely blazar candidates (defined as P_bzr_>90%) and 5 likely pulsar candidates (P_bzr_<10%). Our new X-ray spectral analysis does not drastically alter the random forest classifications of these sources compared to previous works, but it builds a more robust classification scheme and highlights the importance of X-ray spectral fitting. Our procedure can be further expanded with UV, visual, or radio spectral parameters or by measuring flux variability.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/138/1032
- Title:
- Filling in the gaps in the 4.85GHz sky
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/138/1032
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We describe a 4.85GHz survey of bright, flat-spectrum radio sources conducted with the Effelsberg 100m telescope in an attempt to improve the completeness of existing surveys, such as CRATES. We report the results of these observations and of follow-up 8.4GHz observations with the VLA of a subset of the sample. We comment on the connection to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe point source catalog and on the survey's effectiveness at supplementing the CRATES sky coverage.
