Testing the Blazar Sequence with Spectra of Recently Discovered Dim Blazars from the Fermi Unassociated Catalog

Abstract

Abstract Recent works have developed samples of blazars from among the Fermi Large Area Telescope unassociated sources via machine-learning comparisons with known blazar samples. Continued analysis of these new blazars tests the predictions of the blazar sequence and enables more flux-complete samples of blazars as a population. Using Fermi, Swift, Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and archival radio data, we construct broadband spectral energy distributions for 106 recently identified blazars. Drawn from the unassociated 4FGL source sample, this new sample has a lower median flux than the overall sample of gamma-ray blazars. By measuring the synchrotron peak frequency, we compare our sample of new blazars with known blazars from the 4LAC catalog. We find that the bulk of the new blazars are similar to high-synchrotron-peaked BL Lac objects, with a higher median synchrotron peak; the sample has a median log ( ν syn / Hz ) = 15.5 via BLaST peak estimation, compared to log ( ν syn / Hz ) = 14.2 for the 4LAC BL Lacs. Finally, we conduct synchrotron self-Compton leptonic modeling, comparing fitted physical and phenomenological properties to brighter blazars. We find that the new blazars have smaller characteristic Lorentz factors γ boost and fitted magnetic fields B, in agreement with blazar sequence predictions. The new blazars have slightly higher Compton dominance ratios than expected, which may point to alternative emission models for these dim blazars. Our results extend the predictions of the blazar sequence to a sample of dimmer blazars, confirming the broad predictions of that theory.