Optical Spectroscopy of Bright Fermi LAT Blazars

TL;DR

This study presents optical spectroscopy of bright Fermi LAT blazars, leading to new identifications, redshifts, black hole mass estimates, and improved spectral energy distribution data, enhancing understanding of these gamma-ray sources.

Contribution

Provides new optical spectroscopic data for bright Fermi LAT blazars, improving their identification, redshift measurements, and understanding of their properties.

Findings

Identified 10 new FSRQs and 6 new BL Lacs.

Improved redshift measurements and constraints.

Estimated black hole masses and characterized optical SEDs.

Abstract

We report on HET and Palomar 5 m spectroscopy of recently identified $\gamma$-ray blazars in the {\it Fermi} LAT Bright Source List. These data provide identifications for 10 newly discovered $\gamma$-ray flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQ) and six new BL Lacs plus improved spectroscopy for six additional BL Lacs. We substantially improve the identification completeness of the bright LAT blazars and give new redshifts and $z$ constraints, new estimates of the black hole masses and new measurements of the optical SED.