Long-term OVRO monitoring of LSI+61303: confirmation of the two close periodicities

Context: The gamma-ray binary LSI+61303 shows multiple periodicities. The timing analysis of 6.7 yr of GBI radio data and of 6 yr of Fermi-LAT GeV gamma-ray data both have found two close periodicities P1(GBI) = 26.49 \pm 0.07 d, P2(GBI)=26.92 \pm 0.07 d and P1(gamma)=26.48 \pm 0.08 d, P2(gamma) = 26.99 \pm 0.08 d. Aims: The system LSI+61303 is the object of several continuous monitoring programs at low and high energies. The frequency difference between f1 and f2 of only 0.0006 d(-1) requires long-term monitoring because the frequency resolution in timing analysis is related to the inverse of the overall time interval. The Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) 40 m telescope has been monitoring the source at 15 GHz for five years and overlaps with Fermi-LAT monitoring. The aim of this work is to establish whether the two frequencies are also resolved in the OVRO monitoring. Methods: We analysed OVRO data with the Lomb-Scargle method. We also updated the timing analysis of Fermi-LAT observations. Results: The periodograms of OVRO data confirm the two periodicities P1(OVRO) = 26.5 \pm 0.1 d and P2(OVRO) = 26.9 \pm 0.1 d. Conclusions: The three indipendent measurements of P1 and P2 with GBI, OVRO, and Fermi-LAT observations confirm that the periodicities are permanent features of the system LSI+61303. The similar behaviours of the emission at high (GeV) and low (radio) energy when the compact object in LSI+61303 is toward apastron suggest that the emission is caused by the same periodically (P1) ejected population of electrons in a precessing (P2) jet.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, A&A Letters in pres

Doppler factors, Lorentz factors and viewing angles for quasars, BL Lacertae objects and radio galaxies

We have calculated variability Doppler boosting factors, Lorentz factors, and viewing angles for a large sample of sources by using total flux density observations at 22 and 37 GHz and VLBI data. We decomposed the flux curves into exponential flares and determined the variability brightness temperatures of the fastest flares. By assuming the same intrinsic brightness temperature for each source, we calculated the Doppler boosting factors for 87 sources. In addition we used new apparent jet speed data to calculate the Lorentz factors and viewing angles for 67 sources. We find that all quasars in our sample are Doppler-boosted and that the Doppler boosting factors of BL Lacertae objects are lower than of quasars. The new Lorentz factors are about twice as high as in earlier studies, which is mainly due to higher apparent speeds in our analyses. The jets of BL Lacertae objects are slower than of quasars. There are some extreme sources with very high derived Lorentz factors of the order of a hundred. These high Lorentz factors could be real. It is also possible that the sources exhibit such rapid flares that the fast variations have remained undetected in monitoring programmes, or else the sources have a complicated jet structure that is not amenable to our simple analysis. Almost all the sources are seen in a small viewing angle of less than 20 degrees. Our results follow the predictions of basic unification schemes for AGN.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication in A&

Multi-wavelength observations of the gamma-ray flaring quasar S4 1030+61 in 2009-2014

We present a study of the parsec-scale multi-frequency properties of the quasar S4 1030+61 during a prolonged radio and gamma-ray activity. Observations were performed within Fermi gamma-ray telescope, OVRO 40-m telescope and MOJAVE VLBA monitoring programs, covering five years from 2009. The data are supplemented by four-epoch VLBA observations at 5, 8, 15, 24, and 43 GHz, which were triggered by the bright gamma-ray flare, registered in the quasar in 2010. The S4 1030+61 jet exhibits an apparent superluminal velocity of (6.4+-0.4)c and does not show ejections of new components in the observed period, while decomposition of the radio light curve reveals nine prominent flares. The measured variability parameters of the source show values typical for Fermi-detected quasars. Combined analysis of radio and gamma-ray emission implies a spatial separation between emitting regions at these bands of about 12 pc and locates the gamma-ray emission within a parsec from the central engine. We detected changes in the value and direction of the linear polarization and the Faraday rotation measure. The value of the intrinsic brightness temperature of the core is above the equipartition state, while its value as a function of distance from the core is well approximated by the power-law. Altogether these results show that the radio flaring activity of the quasar is accompanied by injection of relativistic particles and energy losses at the jet base, while S4 1030+61 has a stable, straight jet well described by standard conical jet theories.Comment: accepted by MNRAS, 16 pages, 14 figures, 8 tables, 5 pages of supplementary materia

Locating the gamma-ray emission site in Fermi/LAT blazars from correlation analysis between 37 GHz radio and gamma-ray light curves

We address the highly debated issue of constraining the gamma-ray emission region in blazars from cross-correlation analysis using discrete correlation function between radio and gamma-ray light curves. The significance of the correlations is evaluated using two different approaches: simulating light curves and mixed source correlations. The cross-correlation analysis yielded 26 sources with significant correlations. In most of the sources, the gamma-ray peaks lead the radio with time lags in the range +20 and +690 days, whereas in sources 1633+382 and 3C 345 we find the radio emission to lead the gamma rays by -15 and -40 days, respectively. Apart from the individual source study, we stacked the correlations of all sources and also those based on sub-samples. The time lag from the stacked correlation is +80 days for the whole sample and the distance travelled by the emission region corresponds to 7 pc. We also compared the start times of activity in radio and gamma rays of the correlated flares using Bayesian block representation. This shows that most of the flares at both wavebands start at almost the same time, implying a co-spatial origin of the activity. The correlated sources show more flares and are brighter in both bands than the uncorrelated ones.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures and 4 tables. Published in MNRAS. Online-only Figure 6 is available as ancillary file with this submissio

Long-term OVRO monitoring of LS I +61º 303: confirmation of the two close periodicities

Context. The gamma-ray binary LS I +61° 303 shows multiple periodicities. The timing analysis of 6.7 yr of GBI radio data and of 6 yr of Fermi-LAT GeV gamma-ray data both have found two close periodicities P_(1,GBI) = 26.49 ± 0.07 d, P_(2,GBI) = 26.92 ± 0.07 d and P_(1,γ) = 26.48 ± 0.08 d, P_(2,γ) = 26.99 ± 0.08 d. Aims. The system LS I +61°303 is the object of several continuous monitoring programs at low and high energies. The frequency difference between ν_1 and ν_2 of only 0.0006 d^(-1) requires long-term monitoring because the frequency resolution in timing analysis is related to the inverse of the overall time interval. The Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) 40 m telescope has been monitoring the source at 15 GHz for five years and overlaps with Fermi-LAT monitoring. The aim of this work is to establish whether the two frequencies are also resolved in the OVRO monitoring. Methods. We analysed OVRO data with the Lomb-Scargle method. We also updated the timing analysis of Fermi-LAT observations. Results. The periodograms of OVRO data confirm the two periodicities and . Conclusions. The three independent measurements of P_1 and P_2 with GBI, OVRO, and Fermi-LAT observations confirm that the periodicities are permanent features of the system LS I +61°303. The similar behaviours of the emission at high (GeV) and low (radio) energy when the compact object in LS I +61°303 is toward apastron suggest that the emission is caused by the same periodically (P_1) ejected population of electrons in a precessing (P_2) jet

MAGIC detection of short-term variability of the high-peaked BL Lac object lES 0806+524

The high-frequency-peaked BL Lac (HBL) 1ES 0806+524 (z = 0.138) was discovered in very high energy (VHE) γ-rays in 2008. Until now, the broad-band spectrum of 1ES 0806+524 has been only poorly characterized, in particular at high energies. We analysed multiwavelength observations from γ-rays to radio performed from 2011 January to March, which were triggered by the high activity detected at optical frequencies. These observations constitute the most precise determination of the broad-band emission of 1ES 0806+524 to date. The stereoscopic Major Atmospheric Gamma-Ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) observations yielded a γ-ray signal above 250 GeV of (3.7 ± 0.7) per cent of the Crab Nebula flux with a statistical significance of 9.9σ. The multiwavelength observations showed significant variability in essentially all energy bands, including a VHE γ-ray flare that lasted less than one night, which provided unprecedented evidence for short-term variability in 1ES 0806+524. The spectrum of this flare is well described by a power law with a photon index of 2.97 ± 0.29 between ∼150 GeV and 1 TeV and an integral flux of (9.3 ± 1.9) per cent of the Crab nebula flux above 250 GeV. The spectrum during the non-flaring VHE activity is compatible with the only available VHE observation performed in 2008 with VERITAS when the source was in a low optical state. The broad-band spectral energy distribution can be described with a one-zone synchrotron self-Compton model with parameters typical for HBLs, indicating that 1ES 0806+524 is not substantially different from the HBLs previously detected

Rapid TeV Gamma-Ray Flaring of BL Lacertae

We report on the detection of a very rapid TeV gamma-ray flare from BL Lacertae on 2011 June 28 with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS). The flaring activity was observed during a 34.6 minute exposure, when the integral flux above 200 GeV reached (3.4 ± 0.6) × 10^(–6) photons m^(–2) s^(–1), roughly 125% of the Crab Nebula flux measured by VERITAS. The light curve indicates that the observations missed the rising phase of the flare but covered a significant portion of the decaying phase. The exponential decay time was determined to be 13 ± 4 minutes, making it one of the most rapid gamma-ray flares seen from a TeV blazar. The gamma-ray spectrum of BL Lacertae during the flare was soft, with a photon index of 3.6 ± 0.4, which is in agreement with the measurement made previously by MAGIC in a lower flaring state. Contemporaneous radio observations of the source with the Very Long Baseline Array revealed the emergence of a new, superluminal component from the core around the time of the TeV gamma-ray flare, accompanied by changes in the optical polarization angle. Changes in flux also appear to have occurred at optical, UV, and GeV gamma-ray wavelengths at the time of the flare, although they are difficult to quantify precisely due to sparse coverage. A strong flare was seen at radio wavelengths roughly four months later, which might be related to the gamma-ray flaring activities. We discuss the implications of these multiwavelength results

Constraining the limiting brightness temperature and Doppler factors for the largest sample of radio bright blazars

Relativistic effects dominate the emission of blazar jets complicating our understanding of their intrinsic properties. Although many methods have been proposed to account for them, the variability Doppler factor method has been shown to describe the blazar populations best. We use a Bayesian hierarchical code called {\it Magnetron} to model the light curves of 1029 sources observed by the Owens Valley Radio Observatory's 40-m telescope as a series of flares with an exponential rise and decay, and estimate their variability brightness temperature. Our analysis allows us to place the most stringent constraints on the equipartition brightness temperature i.e., the maximum achieved intrinsic brightness temperature in beamed sources which we found to be $\rm \langle T_{eq}\rangle=2.78\times10^{11}K\pm26\%$. Using our findings we estimated the variability Doppler factor for the largest sample of blazars increasing the number of available estimates in the literature by almost an order of magnitude. Our results clearly show that $\gamma$-ray loud sources have faster and higher amplitude flares than $\gamma$-ray quiet sources. As a consequence they show higher variability brightness temperatures and thus are more relativistically beamed, with all of the above suggesting a strong connection between the radio flaring properties of the jet and $\gamma$-ray emission.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in AP

Very-high-energy gamma-rays from the Universe's middle age: detection of the z=0.940 blazar PKS 1441+25 with MAGIC

The flat-spectrum radio quasar PKS 1441+25 at a redshift of z = 0.940 is detected between 40 and 250 GeV with a significance of 25.5 {\sigma} using the MAGIC telescopes. Together with the gravitationally lensed blazar QSO B0218+357 (z = 0.944), PKS 1441+25 is the most distant very high energy (VHE) blazar detected to date. The observations were triggered by an outburst in 2015 April seen at GeV energies with the Large Area Telescope on board Fermi. Multi-wavelength observations suggest a subdivision of the high state into two distinct flux states. In the band covered by MAGIC, the variability time scale is estimated to be 6.4 +/- 1.9 days. Modeling the broadband spectral energy distribution with an external Compton model, the location of the emitting region is understood as originating in the jet outside the broad line region (BLR) during the period of high activity, while being partially within the BLR during the period of low (typical) activity. The observed VHE spectrum during the highest activity is used to probe the extragalactic background light at an unprecedented distance scale for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy

The most powerful flaring activity from the NLSy1 PMN J0948+0022

We report on multifrequency observations performed during 2012 December–2013 August of the first narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy detected in γ-rays, PMN J0948+0022 (z = 0.5846). A γ-ray flare was observed by the Large Area Telescope on board Fermi during 2012 December–2013 January, reaching a daily peak flux in the 0.1–100 GeV energy range of (155 ± 31) × 10−8 ph cm−2 s−1 on 2013 January 1, corresponding to an apparent isotropic luminosity of ∼1.5 × 1048 erg s−1. The γ-ray flaring period triggered Swift and Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) observations in addition to radio and optical monitoring by Owens Valley Radio Observatory, Monitoring Of Jets in Active galactic nuclei with VLBA Experiments, and Catalina Real-time Transient Survey. A strong flare was observed in optical, UV, and X-rays on 2012 December 30, quasi-simultaneously to the γ-ray flare, reaching a record flux for this source from optical to γ-rays. VERITAS observations at very high energy (E > 100 GeV) during 2013 January 6–17 resulted in an upper limit of F>0.2 TeV < 4.0 × 10−12 ph cm−2 s−1. We compared the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the flaring state in 2013 January with that of an intermediate state observed in 2011. The two SEDs, modelled as synchrotron emission and an external Compton scattering of seed photons from a dust torus, can be modelled by changing both the electron distribution parameters and the magnetic field