557 research outputs found
Suborbital Fermi/LAT Analysis of the Brightest Gamma-Ray Flare of Blazar 3C 454.3
Recent detection of suborbital gamma-ray variability of Flat Spectrum Radio
Quasar (FSRQ) 3C 279 by Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) is in severe conflict
with established models of blazar emission. This paper presents the results of
suborbital analysis of the Fermi/LAT data for the brightest gamma-ray flare of
another FSRQ blazar 3C 454.3 in November 2010 (MJD 55516-22). Gamma-ray light
curves are calculated for characteristic time bin lengths as short as 3 min.
The measured variations of the 0.1-10 GeV photon flux are tested against the
hypothesis of steady intraorbit flux. In addition, the structure function is
calculated for absolute photon flux differences and for their significances.
Significant gamma-ray flux variations are measured only over time scales longer
than ~5h, which is consistent with the standard blazar models.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, special issue "Microvariability of Blazars", Ed.
James R. Web
A Model of Polarisation Rotations in Blazars from Kink Instabilities in Relativistic Jets
This paper presents a simple model of polarisation rotation in optically thin
relativistic jets of blazars. The model is based on the development of helical
(kink) mode of current-driven instability. A possible explanation is suggested
for the observational connection between polarisation rotations and
optical/gamma-ray flares in blazars, if the current-driven modes are triggered
by secular increases of the total jet power. The importance of intrinsic
depolarisation in limiting the amplitude of coherent polarisation rotations is
demonstrated. The polarisation rotation amplitude is thus very sensitive to the
viewing angle, which appears to be inconsistent with the observational
estimates of viewing angles in blazars showing polarisation rotations. Overall,
there are serious obstacles to explaining large-amplitude polarisation
rotations in blazars in terms of current-driven kink modes.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; Proceedings of the conference "Polarised Emission
from Astrophysical Jets", 12-16 June 2017, Ierapetra, Greece; Eds. M.
Boettcher, E. Angelakis and J. L. G\'{o}me
The sequence of Compton dominance in blazars based on data from WISE and Fermi/LAT
The two-component broad-band spectral energy distributions of blazars were
suggested to form a sequence in which (1) the peak frequency of the low-energy
(synchrotron) component nu_syn is anticorrelated with the synchrotron
luminosity L_syn, and (2) the luminosity ratio of the high-energy (inverse
Compton) to synchrotron components q = L_IC / L_syn (Compton dominance)
increases with L_syn from the BL Lac objects (BL Lacs) to the flat spectrum
radio quasars (FSRQs). The Compton dominance parameter is an important probe of
plasma magnetisation in the blazar zones within relativistic jets. We
investigate a sample of blazars detected by WISE in the mid-infrared (MIR) band
and by Fermi/LAT in the GeV gamma-ray band, with the focus on the distribution
of luminosities and photon indices. Our findings are the following: (1) the MIR
photon index Gamma_W12 is a useful probe of the blazar sequence, with the
exception of low-luminosity BL Lacs that are most likely contaminated by their
host galaxies (L_W1 ~ 10^44 erg/s and Gamma_W12 < 1); (2) Gamma_W12 is
correlated with the gamma-ray photon index Gamma_1-100GeV, with the MIR
luminosity L_W1, and with the Fermi/WISE Compton dominance q_FW = L_1GeV/L_W1;
(3) a clean separation between FSRQs and BL Lacs can be seen in the parameter
space of Gamma_W12 and q_FW; (4) the observed distribution of MIR luminosity
L_W1 vs. Compton dominance q_FW for the entire sample of blazars can be modeled
as a sequence of lepto-magnetic jet powers in the range (log_10 P_eB) in
[42:45] with the preference for sub-equipartition magnetic fields P_B/P_e in
[0.05:1], assuming fixed bulk Lorentz factor Gamma_j = 15, fixed jet opening
angle Gamma_j Theta_j = 0.3, fixed radiative efficiency of jet electrons
epsilon_em = 50%, and that external radiation luminosity scales like L_ext
propto (P_eB)^(1.6) (parameter degeneracies are discussed).Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, submitted to A&
Kinetic simulations of relativistic magnetic reconnection with synchrotron and inverse Compton cooling
First results are presented from kinetic numerical simulations of
relativistic collisionless magnetic reconnection in pair plasma that include
radiation reaction from both synchrotron and inverse Compton (IC) processes,
motivated by non-thermal high-energy astrophysical sources, including in
particular blazars. These simulations are initiated from a configuration known
as 'ABC fields' that evolves due to coalescence instability and generates thin
current layers in its linear phase. Global radiative efficiencies, instability
growth rates, time-dependent radiation spectra, lightcurves, variability
statistics and the structure of current layers are investigated for a broad
range of initial parameters. We find that the IC radiative signatures are
generally similar to the synchrotron signatures. The luminosity ratio of IC to
synchrotron spectral components, the Compton dominance, can be modified by more
than one order of magnitude with respect to its nominal value. For very short
cooling lengths, we find evidence for modification of the temperature profile
across the current layers, no systematic compression of plasma density, and
very consistent profiles of E.B. We decompose the profiles of E.B with the use
of the Vlasov momentum equation, demonstrating a contribution from radiation
reaction at the thickness scale consistent with the temperature profile.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in the Journal of
Plasma Physics, special collection "Plasma physics under extreme conditions:
from high-energy-density experiments to astrophysics", Eds. F. Fiuza, R. D.
Blandford & S. Glenze
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