X-ray and Radio Follow-up Observations of High-Redshift Blazar Candidates in the Fermi-LAT Unassociated Source Population


Abstract in English

We report on the results of X-ray and radio follow-up observations of two GeV gamma-ray sources 2FGL J0923.5+1508 and 2FGL J1502.1+5548, selected as candidates for high-redshift blazars from unassociated sources in the {it Fermi} Large Area Telescope Second Source Catalog. We utilize the Suzaku satellite and the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) telescopes for X-ray and radio observations, respectively. For 2FGL J0923.5+1508, a possible radio counterpart NVSS J092357+150518 is found at 1.4 GHz from an existing catalog, but we do not detect any X-ray emission from it and derive a flux upper limit $F_{rm 2-8 keV} <$ 1.37 $times$ 10$^{-14}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. Radio observations at 6.7 GHz also result in an upper limit of $S_{rm 6.7 GHz}$ $<$ 19 mJy, implying a steep radio spectrum that is not expected for a blazar. On the other hand, we detect X-rays from NVSS J150229+555204, the potential 1.4 GHz radio counterpart of 2FGL J1502.1+5548. The X-ray spectrum can be fitted with an absorbed power-law model with a photon index $gamma$=1.8$^{+0.3}_{-0.2}$ and the unabsorbed flux is $F_{rm 2-8 keV}$=4.3$^{+1.1}_{-1.0}$ $times$ 10$^{-14}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. Moreover, we detect unresolved radio emission at 6.7 GHz with flux $S_{rm 6.7 GHz}$=30.1 mJy, indicating a compact, flat-spectrum radio source. If NVSS J150229+555204 is indeed associated with 2FGL J1502.1+5548, we find that its multiwavelength spectrum is consistent with a blazar at redshift $z sim 3-4$.

Download