Correlated Spectral and Temporal Variability in the High-Energy Emission from Blazars

Blazar flare data show energy-dependent lags and correlated variability between optical/X-ray and GeV-TeV energies, and follow characteristic trajectories when plotted in the spectral-index/flux plane. This behavior is qualitatively explained if nonthermal electrons are injected over a finite time interval in the comoving plasma frame and cool by radiative processes. Numerical results are presented which show the importance of the effects of synchrotron self-Compton cooling and plasmoid deceleration. The use of INTEGRAL to advance our understanding of these systems is discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, uses epsf.sty, rotate.sty Invited paper in "The Extreme Universe," 3rd INTEGRAL Workshop, 14-18 September 1998, Taorimina, Ital

Phase analysis of the cosmic microwave background from an incomplete sky coverage

Phases of the spherical harmonic analysis of full-sky cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature data contain useful information complementary to the ubiquitous angular power spectrum. In this letter we present a new method of phase analysis on incomplete sky maps. It is based on Fourier phases of equal-latitude pixel rings of the map, which are related to the mean angle of the trigonometric moments from the full-sky phases. They have an advantage for probing regions of interest without tapping polluted Galactic plane area, and can localize non-Gaussian features and departure from statistical isotropy in the CMB.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures submitted to MNRAS Letters, replaced with minor change