The fraction of BL Lac objects in groups of galaxies

TL;DR

This study estimates that over 67% of BL Lac objects are located in galaxy groups, supporting a new method for determining their redshifts based on their environmental context.

Contribution

The paper provides the first statistical estimate of the fraction of BL Lac objects in galaxy groups, validating a novel redshift estimation method.

Findings

Over 67% of BL Lac objects are in galaxy groups.

Most BL Lac objects in the sample are galaxy-dominated.

The results support the new redshift estimation technique.

Abstract

Context: BL Lac objects are a rare class of active galactic nuclei that typically show featureless optical spectra that make it difficult to estimate the redshift. A novel method for estimating the redshift of BL Lac objects has recently been proposed which assumes that these objects typically reside in groups of galaxies. Aims: The aim of this work is to estimate the fraction of BL Lac objects that reside in groups of galaxies. Methods: We use a sample of groups (M12 catalogue) selected by applying a friends-of-friends algorithm in the SDSS DR12. Galaxies in the M12 sample were cross-correlated with the sample of blazars in the BZCAT. Results: We found that 121 galaxies in the M12 catalogue are blazars in the BZCAT sample, all but one are BL Lac objects, and a large fraction are classified as BL Lac-galaxy dominated. Analysing the fraction of galaxies in groups as a function of redshift we have estimated a correction factor that takes into account the typical incompleteness of the catalogues based on the friends-of-friends algorithm. Once this factor was applied to the sample of BL Lac objects with a counterpart in the M12 catalogue, we found that the percentage of BL Lac objects in groups is $\gtrsim 67 \pm 8\%$. Conclusions: The high rate of BL Lac objects in groups found in this work strongly supports a recent method that has successfully estimated the redshift of BL Lac objects with featureless spectra.