No Arabic abstract
We report on the results of deep X-ray follow-up observations of four unidentified Fermi/LAT gamma-ray sources at high Galactic latitudes using Suzaku. The studied objects were detected with high significance during the first 3 months of Fermi/LAT operation, and subsequently better localized in the Fermi/LAT 1 year catalog (1FGL). Possible associations with pulsars and active galaxies have subsequently been discussed, and our observations provide an important contribution to this debate. In particular, an X-ray point source was found within the 95% confidence error circle of 1FGL J1231.1-1410. X-ray spectrum is well-fitted by a blackbody with an additional power-law. This supports the recently claimed identification of this source with a millisecond pulsar (MSP) PSR J1231-1411. Concerning 1FGL J1311.7-3429, two X-ray sources were found within the LAT error circle. Even though the X-ray spectral and variability properties were accessed, their nature and relationship with the gamma-ray source remain uncertain. We found several weak X-ray sources in the field of 1FGL J1333.2+5056, one coinciding with CLASS J1333+5057. We argue the available data are consistent with the association between these two objects. Finally, we have detected an X-ray source in the vicinity of 1FGL J2017.3+0603. This object was recently suggested to be associated with a newly discovered MSP PSR J2017+0603, because of the spatial-coincidence and the gamma-ray pulse detection. We have only detected the X-ray counterpart of the CLASS J2017+0603, while we determined an X-ray flux upper limit at the pulsar position. All in all, our studies indicate while a significant fraction of unidentified high Galactic latitude gamma-ray sources is related to the pulsar and blazar phenomena, associations with other classes of astrophysical objects are still valid options.
During a search for gamma-ray emission from NGC 3628 (Arp 317), two new unidentified gamma-ray sources, Fermi J1049.7+0435 and J1103.2+1145 have been discovered cite{ATel}. The detections are made in data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT), on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, in the 100,MeV to 300,GeV band during the period between 2008 August 5 and 2012 October 27. Neither is coincident with any source listed in the 2FGL catalogue cite{Nolan2012}. Fermi J1049.7+0435 is at Galactic coordinates $(l,b) = (245.34^circ, 53.27^circ)$, $(alpha_{J2000}, delta_{J2000}) = (162.43^circ, 4.60^circ)$. Fermi J1103.2+1145 is at Galactic coordinates $(l,b) = (238.85^circ, 60.33^circ)$, $(alpha_{J2000},delta_{J2000})= (165.81^circ, 11.75^circ)$. Possible radio counterparts are found for both sources, which show flat radio spectra similar to other Fermi LAT detected AGN, and their identifications are discussed. These identification have been supoorted by snap-shot observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array at several epochs in 2013 and 2014,
We discuss the time-series behavior of 8 extragalactic 3FGL sources away from the Galactic plane (i.e., $mid bmid geq 10^{circ}$) whose uncertainty ellipse contains a single X-ray and one radio source. The analysis was done using the standard Fermi textit{ScienceTools}, package of version v10r0p5. The results show that sources in the study sample display a slight indication of flux variability in $gamma$-ray on monthly timescale. Furthermore, based on the object location on the variability index versus spectral index diagram, the positions of 4 objects in the sample were found to fall in the region of the already known BL Lac positions.
We describe a long-term Swift monitoring program of Fermi gamma-ray sources, particularly the 23 gamma-ray sources of interest. We present a systematic analysis of the Swift X-ray Telescope light curves and hardness ratios of these sources, and we calculate excess variability. We present data for the time interval of 2004 December 22 through 2012 August 31. We describe the analysis methods used to produce these data products, and we discuss the availability of these data in an online repository, which continues to grow from more data on these sources and from a growing list of additional sources. This database should be of use to the broad astronomical community for long term studies of the variability of these objects and for inclusion in multi-wavelength studies.
About one third of the gamma-ray sources listed in the second Fermi LAT catalog (2FGL) have no firmly established counterpart at lower energies so being classified as unidentified gamma-ray sources (UGSs). Here we propose a new approach to find candidate counterparts for the UGSs based on the 325 MHz radio survey performed with Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) in the northern hemisphere. First we investigate the low-frequency radio properties of blazars, the largest known population of gamma-ray sources; then we search for sources with similar radio properties combining the information derived from the Westerbork Northern Sky Survey (WENSS) with those of the NRAO VLA Sky survey (NVSS). We present a list of candidate counterparts for 32 UGSs with at least one counterpart in the WENSS. We also performed an extensive research in literature to look for infrared and optical counterparts of the gamma-ray blazar candidates selected with the low-frequency radio observations to confirm their nature. On the basis of our multifrequency research we identify 23 new gamma-ray blazar candidates out of 32 UGSs investigated. Comparison with previous results on the UGSs are also presented. Finally, we speculate on the advantages on the use of the low-frequency radio observations to associate UGSs and to search for gamma-ray pulsar candidates.
We present a new method for identifying blazar candidates by examining the locus, i.e. the region occupied by the Fermi gamma-ray blazars in the three-dimensional color space defined by the WISE infrared colors. This method is a refinement of our previous approach that made use of the two-dimensional projection of the distribution of WISE gamma-ray emitting blazars (the Strip) in the three WISE color-color planes (Massaro et al. 2012a). In this paper, we define the three-dimensional locus by means of a Principal Component (PCs) analysis of the colors distribution of a large sample of blazars composed by all the ROMA-BZCAT sources with counterparts in the WISE All-Sky Catalog and associated to gamma-ray source in the second Fermi LAT catalog (the WISE Fermi Blazars sample, WFB). Our new procedure yields a total completeness of c~81% and total efficiency of e~97%. We also obtain local estimates of the efficiency and completeness as functions of the WISE colors and galactic coordinates of the candidate blazars. The catalog of all WISE candidate blazars associated to the WFB sample is also presented, complemented by archival multi-frequency information for the alternative associations. Finally, we apply the new association procedure to all gamma-ray blazars in the 2FGL and provide a catalog containing all the gamma-ray candidates blazars selected according to our procedure.