The mid-infrared spectral characteristics of blazars

We previously reported discovering that blazars have distinctive infrared colors as seen in the WISE mission. Of particular note are γ-ray blazars, the locus of whose colors roughly overlaps with QSOs contours but which is more tightly delimited and bluer than ULIRGs and Seyferts. Since a large fraction of γ-ray sources are unassociated with any point source, but are expected to be blazars, identifying a WISE-candidate blazar in the γ-ray source field enables efficient followup studies. In an effort to better understand why blazars have these colors, we reduced and analyzed Spitzer Infrared Spectrometer (IRS) measurements on 73 blazars of varying types, some at several epochs. These spectra can be used to study the continuum emission (non-thermal), and search for atomic or other spectral features.