1 research outputs found
Rapid variability at very high energies in Mrk 501
A major flaring state of the BL Lac object Mrk 501 was observed by the High
Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) in June, 2014. Flux levels higher than
one Crab unit were recorded and rapid variability at very high energies
(2-20 TeV) was revealed. The high statistics afforded by the flares
allowed us to probe the presence of minutes timescale variability and study its
statistical characteristics exclusively at TeV energies owing to the high
energy threshold of approximately 2 TeV. Doubling times of a few minutes are
estimated for fluxes greater than 2 TeV. Statistical tests on the light curves
show interesting temporal structure in the variations including deviations from
a normal flux distribution similar to those found in the PKS 2155-304 flare of
July 2006, at nearly an order of magnitude higher threshold energy. Rapid
variations at such high energies put strong constraints on the physical
mechanisms in the blazar jet.Comment: In Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference
(ICRC2015), The Hague, The Netherland