Radio Weak BL Lac objects in the Fermi era

The existence of "radio-weak BL Lac objects" (RWBLs) has been an open question, and has remained unsolved since the discovery that quasars could be radio-quiet or radio-loud. Recently, several groups identified RWBL candidates, mostly found while searching for low-energy counterparts of the unidentified or unassociated gamma-ray sources listed in the Fermi catalogs. Confirming RWBLs is a challenging task since they could be confused with white dwarfs (WDs) or weak emission line quasars (WELQs) when there are not sufficient data to precisely draw their broadband spectral energy distribution, and their classification is mainly based on a featureless optical spectra. Motivated by the recent discovery that Fermi BL Lacs appear to have very peculiar mid-IR emission, we show that it is possible to distinguish between WDs, WELQs, and BL Lacs using the [3.4]-[4.6]-[12] μm color-color plot built using the WISE magnitudes when the optical spectrum is available. On the basis of this analysis, we identify WISE J064459.38+603131 and WISE J141046.00+740511.2 as the first two genuine RWBLs, both potentially associated with Fermi sources. Finally, to strengthen our identification of these objects as true RWBLs, we present multifrequency observations for these two candidates to show that their spectral behavior is indeed consistent with that of the BL Lac population.Fil: Massaro, F.. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica; Italia. Università di Torino; ItaliaFil: Marchesini, Ezequiel Joaquín. Università di Torino; Italia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: D'Abrusco, R.. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; Estados UnidosFil: Masetti, N.. Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica di Bologna; Italia. Universidad Andrés Bello; ChileFil: Andruchow, Ileana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Smith, Howard A.. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; Estados Unido