BL Lac objects are active nuclei, hosted in massive elliptical galaxies, the emission of which is dominated by a relativistic jet closely aligned with the line of sight. This implies the existence of a parent population of sources with a misaligned jet, that have been identified with low-power radiogalaxies. The spectrum of BL Lacs, dominated by non-thermal emission over the whole electromagnetic range, together with bright compact radio cores, high luminosities, rapid and large amplitude flux variability at all frequencies and strong polarization make these sources an optimal laboratory for high energy astrophysics. A most distinctive characteristic of the class is the weakness or absence of spectral lines, that historically hindered the identification of their nature and ever thereafter proved to be a hurdle in the determination of their distance. In this paper we review the main observational facts that contribute to the present basic interpretation of this class of active galaxies. We overview the history of the BL Lac objects research field and their population as it emerged from multi-wavelength surveys. The properties of the flux variability and polarization, compared with those at radio, X-ray and gamma-ray frequencies, are summarized together with the present knowledge of the host galaxies, their environments, and central black hole masses. We focus this review on the optical observations, that played a crucial role in the early phase of BL Lacs studies, and, in spite of extensive radio, X-ray, and recently gamma-ray observations, could represent the future major contribution to the unveiling of the origin of these sources. In particular they could provide a firm conclusion on the long debated issue of the cosmic evolution of this class of active galactic nuclei and on the connection between formation of supermassive black holes and relativistic jets.

An Optical View of BL Lacertae Objects

BL Lac objects are active nuclei, hosted in massive elliptical galaxies, the emission of which is dominated by a relativistic jet closely aligned with the line of sight. This implies the existence of a parent population of sources with a misaligned jet that have been identified with low-power radiogalaxies. The spectrum of BL Lacs, dominated by non-thermal emission over the whole electromagnetic range, together with bright compact radio cores, high luminosities, rapid and large amplitude flux variability at all frequencies and strong polarization makes these sources an optimal laboratory for high energy astrophysics. A most distinctive characteristic of the class is the weakness or absence of spectral lines, that historically hindered the identification of their nature and ever thereafter proved to be a hurdle in the determination of their distance. In this paper, we review the main observational facts that contribute to the present basic interpretation of this class of active galaxies. We overview the history of the BL Lac objects research field and their population as it emerged from multi-wavelength surveys. The properties of the flux variability and polarization, compared with those at radio, X-ray and gamma-ray frequencies, are summarized together with the present knowledge of the host galaxies, their environments, and central black hole masses. We focus this review on the optical observations, which played a crucial role in the early phase of BL Lacs studies, and in spite of extensive radio, X-ray, and recently gamma-ray observations, could represent the future major contribution to the unveiling of the origin of these sources. In particular, they could provide a firm conclusion on the long debated issue of the cosmic evolution of this class of active galactic nuclei and on the connection between formation of supermassive black holes and relativistic jets.

An optical view of BL Lacertae objects

We report rapid optical variability for the blazar S5 0716+71 during 2010 March 8-10 and 19-20 in the CCD observations made from Mt. Abu Infrared Observatory. The light curves are constructed for a duration longer than 3 hr each night, with very high temporal resolution ({approx}45 s in the R band). During 2010 March 8, the source smoothly decayed by about 0.15 mag in 2.88 hr, apart from a fast flicker lasting about 30 minutes. S5 0716+71 brightened during March 9 and 10, showing high activity, while it was relatively faint (>14 mag in the R band) albeit variable during March 19-20. During March 9 and 10, rapid flickers in the intensity modulated the long-term intra-night ({approx}3 hr) variations. The present observations suggest that the blazar S5 0716+71 showed night-to-night and intra-night variability at various timescales with a 100% duty cycle for variation along with microvariability at significant levels. On a night-to-night basis, the source exhibits mild bluer-when-brighter nature. The interaction of shocks with local inhomogeneities in the jet appears to cause intra-night variations, while microvariations could be due to small-scale perturbations intrinsic to the jet.

Rapid optical variability in blazar s5 0716+71 during 2010 march

We present long-term optical multi-band photometric monitoring of blazar S5 0716+714, from 2004 January 11 to 2012 November 4, with high temporal resolution of approximately 15 minutes in the BVRI bands. The source was in an active state during the whole monitoring campaign, showing intraday variability in 11 of 72 days. The average magnitudes in each band were B = 14.398, V = 13.821, R = 13.255, and I = 12.885. The overall variability amplitudes were , , , and . The structure function showed that typical timescales for intraday variability were between approximately 2 and 7.5 hr. The intraday variability amplitudes were from a few percent to approximately 30%. We found typical variation rates of approximately 0.05 mag hr−1 in both the rising and falling phases, with a minimal variability timescale of 130 minutes. A 10 day period short-term variability was observed simultaneously in the BVRI bands. The discrete correlation function suggests that there is significant correlated variability between the B- and I-band light curves. However, no significant time lags were detected. The spectral behaviors in the different variability episodes were studied, and our observations show bluer-when-brighter behavior on long, short, and intraday timescales for the blazar S5 0716+714. The variability and relevant spectral trends can be explained by the shock-in-jet scenario.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0067-0049/218/2/18/pdf

Long-term multi-band photometric monitoring of blazar s5 0716+714

We report rapid optical variability for the blazar S5 0716+71 during 2010 March 08-10 & 19-20 in the CCD observations made from Mt.Abu Infrared Observatory. The light curves are constructed for the duration longer than 3-hours each night, with very high temporal resolution(~ 45 seconds in R-band). During 2010 March 08 source smoothly decayed by about 0.15 mag in 2.88 hours, apart from a fast flicker lasting about 30 mins. S5 0716+71 brightened up during March 09 and 10 showing high activity while it was relatively faint (> 14 mag in R) albeit variable during March 19-20. During March 9 & 10, rapid flickers in the intensity modulate the long term intra-night (~ 3 hours) variation. The present observations suggest that the blazar S5 0716+71 showed night-to-night and intra-night variability at various time scales with 100% duty cycle for variation along with microvariability at significant levels. On night-to-night basis, the source exhibits mild bluer when brighter nature. The interaction of shocks with local inhomogeneities in the jet appears to cause intra-night variations while microvariations could be due to small scale perturbations intrinsic to the jet.

Rapid optical variability in blazar S5 0716+71 during 2010 March

We present the optical photometries (B, V, R, and I) of the BL Lac object S5 0716+714 (z > 0.3), which were observed with the 1 m telescope at Yunnan Astronomical Observatory and the 1.56 m telescope at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory from 2001 February to 2006 April. Our results show a significant rapid variation and exhibit a short time variability of ΔI = 0.60 mag in 28 minutes, ΔR = 1.58 mag in 23 minutes, ΔV = 1.06 mag in 10 minutes, and ΔB = 1.36 mag in 33 minutes. We find a strong correlation between the V – R color index and the magnitude in 292 minutes. Our CCD photometry of the S5 0716+714 showed they are in good similitude with Raiteri et al., and Qian et al. presented the optical variability magnitude and light curves from 1994 to 2001.

Ccd photometric monitoring of the bl lacertae object s5 0716+714 from 2001 to 2006

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Ccd photometric monitoring of the bl lacertae object s5 0716+714 from 2001 to 2006