BEPPOSAX SPECTRAL SURVEY OF SOFT-X-RAY SELECTED BL LACERTAE OBJECTS

We present X-ray spectra obtained with BeppoSAX (Satellite per Astrono mia X) of 10 BL Lac objects, selected from the Einstein Medium Sensiti vity and Slew Surveys. We find that in about half of the objects a fit in the 0.1-10 keV range with a single power law and free absorption y ields values of N-H larger than the Galactic ones. In most of these ca ses, however, broken power law fits with N-H fixed at the Galactic val ues yield an alternative, better description of the data and indicate a steepening of the spectrum with increasing energy. One object (1ES11 01-232) is detected up to similar to 100 keV. Its spectral energy dist ribution (SED) peaks in the medium energy X-ray band. For each object we compute the peak frequency of the SED from multifrequency data. The spectral indices alpha(x) in the 2-10 keV band (F-v proportional to v (-alpha x)) are smaller (i.e. flatter spectrum) for objects with highe r peak frequencies. We therefore confirm and extend to higher energies the behavior already known for X-ray selected BL Lac objects in the R OSAT band. We do not find spectral indices smaller than 1; however, th e flat distribution of alpha(x) and the correlation between alpha(x) a nd peak frequency found from our data suggest that a number of objects may exist, which in the quiescent status have flatter spectrum and pe ak frequency in the hard X-ray range.