The Bologna Complete Sample: radio and gamma-ray data

TL;DR

This study presents the Bologna Complete Sample of 94 nearby radio galaxies, analyzing their radio and gamma-ray properties to understand jet orientations and predict future gamma-ray detections with Fermi.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive, unbiased dataset of radio galaxies with new VLBI observations and explores their gamma-ray connection, enhancing understanding of jet physics.

Findings

Statistical properties of radio sources are characterized.

Doppler factors and viewing angles are estimated.

Potential for new gamma-ray detections with Fermi is discussed.

Abstract

To study a statistical properties of different classes of radio sources, we defined and observed the Bologna Complete Sample (BCS) which is unbiased with respect to the orientation of the nuclear relativistic jet being selected from low-frequency samples. The BCS is a complete sample of 94 nearby (z<0.1) radio galaxies that are well studied targets with literature kiloparsec data. For all of them, we collected parsec scale information asking new VLBI observations. Statistical results on their properties in radio band are presented. From the estimates of the Doppler factor and viewing angles, we discuss the connection with the available gamma-ray data. Finally, we show how future observations with Fermi could reveal new important detections of some of the BCS sources.