We collect data at well‐sampled frequencies from the radio to the γ‐ray range for the following three complete samples of blazars: the Slew survey, the 1‐Jy samples of BL Lacs and the 2‐Jy sample of flat‐spectrum radio‐loud quasars (FSRQs). The fraction of objects detected in γ‐rays (E ≳ 100 MeV) is ∼ 17, 26 and 40 per cent in the three samples respectively. Except for the Slew survey sample, γ‐ray detected sources do not differ either from other sources in each sample, or from all the γ‐ray detected sources, in terms of the distributions of redshift, radio and X‐ray luminosities or of the broad‐band spectral indices (radio to optical and radio to X‐ray). We compute average spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from radio to γ‐rays for each complete sample and for groups of blazars binned according to radio luminosity, irrespective of the original classification as BL Lac or FSRQ. The resulting SEDs show a remarkable continuity in that (i) the first peak occurs in different frequency ranges for different samples/luminosity classes, with most luminous sources peaking at lower frequencies; (ii) the peak frequency of the γ‐ray component correlates with the peak frequency of the lower energy one; (iii) the luminosity ratio between the high and low frequency components increases with bolometric luminosity. The continuity of properties among different classes of sources and the systematic trends of the SEDs as a function of luminosity favour a unified view of the blazar phenomenon: a single parameter, related to luminosity, seems to govern the physical properties and radiation mechanisms in the relativistic jets present in BL Lac objects as well as in FSRQs. The general implications of this unified scheme are discussed while a detailed theoretical analysis, based on fitting continuum models to the individual spectra of most γ‐ray blazars, is presented in a separate paper.

The phenomenology of gamma-ray bright blazars can be accounted for by a sequence in the source power and intensity of the diffuse radiation field surrounding the relativistic jet. Correspondingly, the equilibrium particle distribution peaks at different energies. This leads to a trend in the observed properties: an increase of the observed power corresponds to: 1) a decrease in the frequencies of the synchrotron and inverse Compton peaks; 2) an increase in the ratio of the powers of the high and low energy spectral components. Objects along this sequence would be observationally classified respectively as high frequency BL Lac objects, low frequency BL Lac objects, highly polarized quasars and lowly polarized quasars. The proposed scheme is based on the correlations among the physical parameters derived in the present paper by applying to 51 gamma ray loud blazars two of the most accepted scenarios for the broad band emission of blazars, namely the synchrotron self--Compton and external Compton models, and explains the observational trends presented by Fossati et al. (1998) in a companion paper, dealing with the spectral energy distributions of all blazars. This gives us confidence that our scheme applies to all blazars as a class.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, uses mn.sty and psfig.tex. Accepted for publication in MNRA

We present the SEDs of a hard X-ray selected sample containing 136 sources with F 2Y10 keV > 10 À14 erg cm À2 s À1 ; 132 are AGNs. The sources are detected in a 1 deg 2 area of the XMM-Newton Medium Deep Survey where optical data from the VVDS and CFHTLS and infrared data from the SWIRE survey are available. Based on a SED fitting technique we derive photometric redshifts with (1 þ z) ¼ 0:11 and 6% of outliers and identify AGN signatures in 83% of the objects. This fraction is higher than derived when a spectroscopic classification is available. The remaining 17 þ9 À6 % of AGNs show star-forming galaxy SEDs (SF class). The sources with AGN signatures are divided in two classes, AGN1 (33 þ6 À1 %) and AGN2 (50 þ6 À11 %). The AGN1 and AGN2 classes include sources whose SEDs are fitted by type 1 and type 2 AGN templates, respectively. On average, AGN1s show soft X-ray spectra, consistent with being unabsorbed, while AGN2s and SFs show hard X-ray spectra, consistent with being absorbed. The analysis of the average SEDs as a function of X-ray luminosity shows a reddening of the infrared SEDs, consistent with a decreasing contribution from the host galaxy at higher luminosities. The AGNs in the SF classes are likely obscured in the mid-infrared, as suggested by their low L 3Y20 m /L corr 0:5Y10 keV ratios. We confirm the previously found correlation for AGNs between the radio luminosity and the X-ray and the mid-infrared luminosities. The X-rayYradio correlation can be used to identify heavily absorbed AGNs. However, the estimated radio fluxes for the missing AGN population responsible for the bulk of the background at E > 10 keV are too faint to be detected even in the deepest current radio surveys.

No abstract

No abstract

We studied all blazars of known redshift detected by the Fermi satellite during its first three months survey. For the majority of them, pointed Swift observations ensures a good multiwavelength coverage, enabling us to to reliably construct their spectral energy distributions (SED). We model the SEDs using a one-zone leptonic model and study the distributions of the derived interesting physical parameters as a function of the observed gamma-ray luminosity. We confirm previous findings concerning the relation of the physical parameters with source luminosity which are at the origin of the blazar sequence. The SEDs allow to estimate the luminosity of the accretion disk for the majority of broad emitting line blazars, while for the line-less BL Lac objects in the sample upper limits can be derived. We find a positive correlation between the jet power and the luminosity of the accretion disk in broad line blazars. In these objects we argue that the jet must be proton-dominated, and that the total jet power is of the same order of (or slightly larger than) the disk luminosity. We discuss two alternative scenarios to explain this result.Comment: 23 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Very minosr change

No abstract

A large collective effort to study the variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN) over the past decade has led to a number of fundamental results on radioquiet AGN and blazars. In radio-quiet AGN, the ultraviolet (UV) bump in low-luminosity objects is thermal emission from a dense medium, very probably an accretion disk, irradiated by the variable X-ray source. The validity of this model for high-luminosity radio-quiet AGN is unclear because the relevant UV and X-ray observations are lacking. The broad-line gas kinematics appears to be dominated by virialized motions in the gravity field of a black hole, whose mass can be derived from the observed motions. The "accretion disk plus wind" model explains most of the variability (and other) data and appears to be the most appropriate model at present. Future investigations are outlined. In blazars, rapid variability at the highest energies (gamma-rays) implies that the whole continuum is relativistically boosted along the line of sight. The general correlation found between variations in TeV gamma rays and in X rays for Mrk 421, and between variations in GeV gamma rays and in the IR-optical-UV bands for 3C 279, two prototype objects, supports models in which the same population of relativistic electrons radiates the low-frequency continuum via synchrotron and the high frequency continuum via inverse Compton scattering of soft photons.