Abstract

Poster - Splinter General   (H 0104 / virtual plenum)

X-ray properties of blazars using eROSITA

Steven Hämmerich (1), Andrea Gokus (2), Philipp Weber (1), Aafia Zainab (1), Werner Collmar (3), Joern Wilms (1), Felicia McBride (4), Matthias Kadler (5), Mara Salvato (3), Michael Burgess (3), Paavai Rajasekar Kavitha (1), Lea Dauner (1), Maximilian Lorenz (1), Ole K"onig (1), Christian Kirsch (1), Mirko Krumpe (6), David Homan (6), Sabina Bahic (6), Alex Markowitz (7)
1) Dr. Karl Remeis Sternwarte Bamberg & ECAP (FAU), 2) Washington University in St. Louis, 3) Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, 4) Department of Physics and Astronomy, Bowdoin College, 5) Lehrstuhl für Astronomie, Universität Würzburg, 6) Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam, 7) Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Polish Academy of Sciences

Blazars are highly variable radio-loud AGN. Their jets are closely aligned with the line-of-sight. These sources are visible over the entire electromagnetic spectrum and are well monitored at e.g. radio or gamma-ray wavelengths. However, these monitoring capabilities have not been available previously in the X-rays. The eROSITA telescope with its all-sky survey presents a unique opportunity to get an unbiased view of the blazar population in the X-ray band. We matched the first eROSITA all-sky survey (eRASS1) with catalogs containing blazars and blazar candidates. The eROSITA dataset contains roughly 7300 individual sources within 8 arcsec of these positions. We will present the X-ray spectral properties of the blazar- and candidate-population as seen by eROSITA. More than 500 sources exhibit 50 counts or more, hence allowing a detailed and reliable spectral analysis. The X-ray photon indices measured are different for the blazar sub-classes and the distributions are separated. Additionally, we will relate the X-ray data to other wavebands. This study paves the way to exploit the rich eROSITA dataset in the future for blazar science.