Variations in the broad-band spectra of BL Lac objects: millimetre observations of an X-ray-selected sample

Observations at millimetre wavelengths are presented for a representative sample of 22 X-ray-selected BL Lac objects (XBLs). This sample comprises 19 High-energy cutoff BL Lacs objects (HBLs), 1 Low-energy cutoff BL Lac object (LBL) and 2 `intermediate' sources. Data for LBLs, which are mostly radio selected BL Lac objects (RBLs) are taken from the literature. It is shown that the radio--millimetre spectral indices ($\alpha_{5-230)$) of HBLs ($-0.29\pm0.15$) are slightly steeper than those of the LBLs ($-0.19\pm0.14$). A correlation exists between $\alpha_{5-230}$ and 230 GHz luminosity. While this correlation could be an artefact of comparing two populations of BL Lac objects with intrinsically different radio properties it is also consistent with the predictions of existing unified schemes which relate BL Lac objects to Fanaroff- Riley class I radio galaxies. The HBLs have significantly flatter submillimetre- X-ray spectral indices ($\alpha_{230-X}$) than the LBLs ($-0.68\pm0.07$ cf. $-1.08\pm0.06$)although the two intermediate sources also have intermediate values of $\alpha_{230-X}\sim-0.9$. It is argued that this difference cannot be explained entirely by the viewing angle hypothesis and requires a difference in physical source parameters. The $\alpha_{230-X}$ values for the HBLs are close to the canonical value found for large samples of radio sources and thus suggest that synchrotron radiation is the mechanism that produces the X-ray emission. As suggested by Padovani & Giommi, the inverse-Compton mechanism is likely to dominate in the LBLs requiring the synchrotron spectra of these sources to steepen or cutoff at lower frequencies than those of the HBLs.

Comment: 10 pages with figures, in press with MNRAS