BL Lac X-ray Spectra: Simpler than we thought
/ Authors
E. Perlman, T. Daugherty, A. Koratkar, G. Madejski, K. Andersson, J. Krolik, H. Aller, M. Aller, J. Stocke, T. Rector
and 2 more authors
/ Abstract
We report results from {\it XMM-Newton} observations of thirteen X-ray bright BL Lacertae objects, selected from the {\it Einstein} Slew Survey sample. The spectra are generally well fit by power-law models, with four objects having hard ($\alpha 5$ keV. None of our spectra show line features, indicating that soft X-ray absorption ``notches'' must be rare amongst BL Lacs, rather than common or ubiquitous as had previously been asserted. We find significant curvature in most of the spectra. This curvature is almost certainly intrinsic, as it appears nearly constant from 0.5 to 6 keV, an observation which is inconsistent with the small columns seen in these sources.