236 research outputs found
Results from the Blazar Monitoring Campaign at the Whipple 10m Gamma-ray Telescope
In September 2005, the observing program of the Whipple 10 m gamma-ray
telescope was redefined to be dedicated almost exclusively to AGN monitoring.
Since then the five Northern Hemisphere blazars that had already been detected
at Whipple are monitored routinely each night that they are visible. Thanks to
the efforts of a large number of multiwavelength collaborators, the first year
of this program has been very successful. We report here on the analysis of
Markarian 421 observations taken from November, 2005 to May, 2006 in the
gamma-ray, X-ray, optical and radio bands.Comment: 4 pages; contribution to the 30th International Cosmic Ray
Conference, Merida, Mexico, July 200
Multiband optical variability of the blazar OJ 287 during its outbursts in 2015 -- 2016
We present recent optical photometric observations of the blazar OJ 287 taken
during September 2015 -- May 2016. Our intense observations of the blazar
started in November 2015 and continued until May 2016 and included detection of
the large optical outburst in December 2016 that was predicted using the binary
black hole model for OJ 287. For our observing campaign, we used a total of 9
ground based optical telescopes of which one is in Japan, one is in India,
three are in Bulgaria, one is in Serbia, one is in Georgia, and two are in the
USA. These observations were carried out in 102 nights with a total of ~ 1000
image frames in BVRI bands, though the majority were in the R band. We detected
a second comparably strong flare in March 2016. In addition, we investigated
multi-band flux variations, colour variations, and spectral changes in the
blazar on diverse timescales as they are useful in understanding the emission
mechanisms. We briefly discuss the possible physical mechanisms most likely
responsible for the observed flux, colour and spectral variability.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables; Accepted for publication in MNRA
Another look at the BL Lacertae flux and spectral variability
The GLAST-AGILE Support Program (GASP) of the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope
(WEBT) monitored BL Lacertae in 2008-2009 at radio, near-IR, and optical
frequencies. During this period, high-energy observations were performed by
XMM-Newton, Swift, and Fermi. We analyse these data with particular attention
to the calibration of Swift UV data, and apply a helical jet model to interpret
the source broad-band variability. The GASP-WEBT observations show an optical
flare in 2008 February-March, and oscillations of several tenths of mag on a
few-day time scale afterwards. The radio flux is only mildly variable. The UV
data from both XMM-Newton and Swift seem to confirm a UV excess that is likely
caused by thermal emission from the accretion disc. The X-ray data from
XMM-Newton indicate a strongly concave spectrum, as well as moderate flux
variability on an hour time scale. The Swift X-ray data reveal fast (interday)
flux changes, not correlated with those observed at lower energies. We compare
the spectral energy distribution (SED) corresponding to the 2008 low-brightness
state, which was characterised by a synchrotron dominance, to the 1997 outburst
state, where the inverse-Compton emission was prevailing. A fit with an
inhomogeneous helical jet model suggests that two synchrotron components are at
work with their self inverse-Compton emission. Most likely, they represent the
radiation from two distinct emitting regions in the jet. We show that the
difference between the source SEDs in 2008 and 1997 can be explained in terms
of pure geometrical variations. The outburst state occurred when the
jet-emitting regions were better aligned with the line of sight, producing an
increase of the Doppler beaming factor. Our analysis demonstrates that the jet
geometry can play an extremely important role in the BL Lacertae flux and
spectral variability.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Variability and Period Analysis for BL Lac AO 0235+164
© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Variability is one of the extreme observational properties of BL Lacertae objects. AO 0235+164 is a well-studied BL Lac throughout allelectromagnetic wavebands. In the present work, we show its optical R-band photometric observations carried out during the period from 2006 November to 2012 December using the Ap6E CCD camera attached to the primary focus of the 70 cm meniscus telescope at Abastumani Observatory, Georgia. During our monitoring period, it showed a large variation of DR = 4.88 mag (14.19- 19.07 mag) and a short timescale of DT- 73.5 minutes. During the period of 2006 December to 2009 November, we made radio observations of the source using the 25 m radio telescope at Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory. By adopting adiscrete correlation function to the optical and radio observations we found that the optical variation leads a?radio variation of 23 2 12.9 days
The optical behaviour of BL Lacertae at its maximum brightness levels: a blend of geometry and energetics
In 2021 BL Lacertae underwent an extraordinary activity phase, which was
intensively followed by the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) Collaboration.
We present the WEBT optical data in the BVRI bands acquired at 36 observatories
around the world. In mid 2021 the source showed its historical maximum, with R
= 11.14. The light curves display many episodes of intraday variability, whose
amplitude increases with source brightness, in agreement with a geometrical
interpretation of the long-term flux behaviour. This is also supported by the
long-term spectral variability, with an almost achromatic trend with
brightness. In contrast, short-term variations are found to be strongly
chromatic and are ascribed to energetic processes in the jet. We also analyse
the optical polarimetric behaviour, finding evidence of a strong correlation
between the intrinsic fast variations in flux density and those in polarisation
degree, with a time delay of about 13 h. This suggests a common physical
origin. The overall behaviour of the source can be interpreted as the result of
two mechanisms: variability on time scales greater than several days is likely
produced by orientation effects, while either shock waves propagating in the
jet, or magnetic reconnection, possibly induced by kink instabilities in the
jet, can explain variability on shorter time scales. The latter scenario could
also account for the appearance of quasi-periodic oscillations, with periods
from a few days to a few hours, during outbursts, when the jet is more closely
aligned with our line of sight and the time scales are shortened by
relativistic effects.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, submitted to MNRA
Multi-band Optical Variability of the TeV Blazar PG 1553+113 in 2019
We report the flux and spectral variability of PG 1553+113 on intra-night
(IDV) to short-term timescales using BVRI data collected over 91 nights from 28
February to 8 November 2019 employing ten optical telescopes: three in
Bulgaria, two each in India and Serbia, and one each in Greece, Georgia, and
Latvia. We monitored the blazar quasi-simultaneously for 16 nights in the V and
R bands and 8 nights in the V, R, I bands and examined the light curves (LCs)
for intra-day flux and colour variations using two powerful tests: the
power-enhanced F-test and the nested ANOVA test. The source was found to be
significantly (> 99%) variable in 4 nights out of 27 in R-band, 1 out of 16 in
V-band, and 1 out of 6 nights in I-band. No temporal variations in the colours
were observed on IDV timescale. During the course of these observations the
total variation in R-band was 0.89 mag observed. We also investigated the
spectral energy distribution (SED) using B, V, R, and I band data. We found
optical spectral indices in the range of 0.878+-0.029 to 1.106+-0.065 by
fitting a power law to these SEDs of PG 1553+113. We found that the source
follows a bluer-when-brighter trend on IDV timescales. We discuss possible
physical causes of the observed spectral variability.Comment: 13 pages,8 figures, 7 tables, Accepted for publication in MNRA
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