On the relation of mid-infrared emission with the gamma-ray properties of Fermi-detected BL Lac objects

Abstract

We present the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) photometric data of 158 Fermi-detected BL Lacs and investigate the nature of their mid-infrared (MIR) continuum emission. In the [3.4]-[4.6]-[12] μm color–color diagram, nearly all their colors lie within the WISE Blazar strip (WBS), which is an effective diagnostic tool to separate sources dominated by non-thermal radiation from those dominated by thermal radiation. This feature indicates that their MIR emission is predominantly non-thermal. This argument is further supported by the strong radio-MIR flux correlation. We derive their MIR spectral indices and compare them with the near-infrared (NIR) spectral indices. We find that there is a prevalent steepening from MIR spectrum to NIR spectrum. The low-frequency-peaked BL Lacs (LBLs) have on average a larger MIR spectral index and a higher MIR luminosity than the high-frequency-peaked BL Lacs (HBLs), and the intermediate-frequency-peaked BL Lacs (IBLs) appear to bridge them. The MIR-γ-ray flux correlation is highly significant. A strong positive correlation is also found between the MIR and γ-ray spectral indices. The γ-ray-MIR loudness is significantly correlated with the synchrotron peak frequency. Finally we propose that the γ-rays are highly associated with the MIR emission from the jet, and the γ-ray emission is likely from the synchrotron self-Compton process for the Fermi-detected BL Lacs in our sample.