Probing Precise Location of Radio Core in TeV Blazar Mrk 501 with VERA at 43 GHz
S. Koyama, M. Kino, A. Doi, K. Niinuma, K. Hada, H. Nagai, M. Honma, K. Akiyama, M. Giroletti, G. Giovannini, M. Orienti, N. Isobe, J. Kataoka, D. Paneque, H. Kobayashi, K. Asada
备注：
23 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in PASJ
We investigate the position of the radio core in a blazar by multi-epoch astrometric observations at 43 GHz. Using the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA), we have conducted four adjacent observations in February 2011 and another four in October 2011, and succeeded in measuring the position of the radio core in the TeV blazar Mrk 501 relative to a distant compact quasar NRAO 512. During our observations, we find that (1) there is no positional change within ~0.2 mas or ~2.0 pc de-projected with $\pm1σ$ error for the weighted-mean phase-referenced positions of Mrk 501 core relative to NRAO 512 over four adjacent days, and (2) there is an indication of position change for 3C 345 core relative to NRAO 512. By applying our results to the standard internal shock model for blazars, we constrain the bulk Lorenz factors of the ejecta.
We reviewed X-ray flux and spectral variability properties studied to date by various X-ray satellites for Mrk 421 and PKS 2155-304, which are TeV emitting blazars. Mrk 421 and PKS 2155-304 are the most X-ray luminous blazars in the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively. Blazars show flux and spectral variabilities in the complete electromagnetic spectrum on diverse timescales ranging from a few minutes to hours, days, weeks, months and even several years. The flux and spectral variability on different timescales can be used to constrain the size of the emitting region, estimate the …
We report the results of flux and spectral variability studies of all seven {\it Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR)} observations of TeV $γ-$ray emitting blazar Markarian (or Mrk) 501. We found strong evidence of intraday variability in 3-79 keV X-ray light curves (LCs) of Mrk 501 during four out of these seven observations. We examined spectral variability using a model-independent hardness-ratio analysis and found a general "harder-when-brighter" behaviour in two observations. We also investigated the nature of 3-79 keV X-ray spectra of TeV blazar Mrk 501 and found that five out …
Flux distribution is an important tool to understand the variability processes in active galactic nuclei. We now have available a great deal of observational evidences pointing towards the presence of log-normal components in the high energy light curves, and different models have been proposed to explain these data. Here, we collect some of the recent developments on this topic using the well-known blazar Mrk 501 as example of complex and interesting aspects coming from its flux distribution in different energy ranges and at different timescales. The observational data we refer to are those c…
Various attempts have been made in the literature at describing the origin and the physical mechanisms behind flaring events in blazars with radiative emission models, but detailed properties of multi-wavelength (MWL) light curves still remain difficult to reproduce. We have developed a versatile radiative code, based on a time-dependent treatment of particle acceleration, escape and radiative cooling, allowing us to test different scenarios to connect the continuous low-state emission self-consistently with that during flaring states. We consider flares as weak perturbations of the quiescent …
Some extensions to the Standard Model lead to the introduction of Lorentz symmetry breaking terms, expected to induce deviations from Lorentz symmetry around the Planck scale. A parameterization of effects due to Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) can be introduced by adding an effective term to the photon dispersion relation. This affects the kinematics of electron-positron pair creation by TeV $γ$ rays on the extragalactic background light (EBL) and translates into modifications of the standard EBL opacity for the TeV photon spectra of extragalactic sources. Exclusion limits are presented, o…
There is an increasing number of observational evidence that very high energy gamma-rays in radio-loud active galactic nuclei are produced in the direct vicinity of a supermassive black hole (SMBH), close to the base of a relativistic jet. In the case of some blazars, the angle between the jet axis and the observer's line of sight is smaller than the angular extent of the jet. Gamma-rays that are produced close to SMBH therefore have to propagate in the nonthermal radiation of the extended jet before reaching the observer. This gamma-ray emission can be strongly absorbed in the extended jet ra…
We report on the detection of excess hard X-ray emission from the TeV BL Lac object Mrk421 during the historical low-flux state of the source in January 2013. NuSTAR observations were conducted four times between MJD56294 and MJD56312 with a total exposure of 80.9 ksec. The source flux in the 3-40 keV range was nearly constant except for MJD56307, when the average flux level increased by a factor of three. Throughout the exposure, the X-ray spectra of Mrk421 were well represented by a steep power-law model with a photon index of 3.1, although a significant excess was noted above 20 keV in the …
Quasi-periodic oscillations (QPO) originating from innermost regions of blazars can provide unique perspective of some of the burning issues in blazar studies including disk-jet connection, launch of relativistic jets from the central engine, and other extreme conditions near the fast rotating supermassive black holes. However, a number of hurdles associated with searching QPOs in blazars e.g., red-noise dominance, modest significance of the detection and periodic modulation lasting for only a couple of cycles, make it difficult to estimate the true significance of the detection. In this work,…
We present an extensive study of 72 archival Chandra light curves of the high-frequency-peaked type blazar Mrk 421, the first strong extragalactic object to be detected at TeV energies. Between 2000 and 2015 Mrk 421 often displayed intraday variability in the 0.3-10.0 keV energy range, as quantified through fractional variability amplitudes that range up to 21.3 per cent. A variability duty cycle of ~84 per cent is present in these data. Variability timescales, with values ranging from 5.5 to 30.5 ks, appear to be present in seven of these observations. Discrete correlation function analyses s…
We have examined 40 NuSTAR light curves (LCs) of five TeV emitting high synchrotron peaked blazars: 1ES 0229+200, Mrk 421, Mrk 501, 1ES 1959+650 and PKS 2155-304. Four of the blazars showed intraday variability in the NuSTAR energy range of 3-79 keV. Using an auto correlation function analysis we searched for intraday variability timescales in these LCs and found indications of several between 2.5 and 32.8 ks in eight LCs of Mrk 421, a timescale around 8.0 ks for one LC of Mrk 501, and timescales of 29.6 ks and 57.4 ks in two LCs of PKS 2155-304. The other two blazars' LCs do not show any evid…
Probing the high energy emission processes of blazars through their variability relies crucially on long-term monitoring. We present unprecedented light curves from unbiased observations of very high energy fluxes from the blazars Mrk 421 and Mrk 501 based on a joint analysis of data from the First G-APD Cherenkov Telescope (FACT) and the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory. Thanks to an offset of 5.3 hours of the geographic locations, a complementary coverage of up to 12 hours of observation per day allows us to track variability on time scales of hours to days in more detail tha…
Extremely High energy peaked BL Lac (EHBL) objects are a special class of blazars with peculiar observational properties at X-ray and $γ$--ray energies. The observations of these sources indicate hard X-ray and $γ$--ray spectra and absence of rapid flux variations in the multi-wavelength light curves. These observational features challenge the leptonic models for blazars due to unusually hard particle spectrum in the emission region of the blazar jet and provide a strong motivation for exploring alternative scenarios to interpret the broad-band emission from blazars. At present, only few TeV b…
The archetypical very-high-energy gamma-ray blazar Mrk 421 was monitored for more than 3 years with the Gas Slit Camera onboard Monitor of All Sky X-ray Image (MAXI), and its longterm X-ray variability was investigated. The MAXI lightcurve in the 3 -- 10 keV range was transformed to the periodogram in the frequency range $f = 1 \times 10^{-8}$ -- $2 \times 10^{-6}$ Hz. The artifacts on the periodogram, resulting from data gaps in the observed lightcurve, were extensively simulated for variations with a power-law like Power Spectrum Density (PSD). By comparing the observed and simulated periodo…
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory surveys the very high energy sky in the 300 GeV to $>100$ TeV energy range. HAWC has detected two blazars above $11σ$, Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) and Markarian 501 (Mrk 501). The observations are comprised of data taken in the period between June 2015 and July 2018, resulting in a $\sim 1038$ days of exposure. In this work we report the time-averaged spectral analysis for both sources above 0.5 TeV. Taking into account the flux attenuation due to the extragalactic background light (EBL), the intrinsic spectrum of Mrk 421 is described …
We report on long-term multi-wavelength monitoring of blazar Mrk~421 from 2010 to 2011. The source exhibited extreme X-ray flares in 2010. Our research group performed optical photopolarimetric follow-up observations using the Kanata telescope. In 2010, the variability in the X-ray band was significant, while the optical and ultraviolet (UV) flux decreased gradually. Polarization properties also exhibited unique variability in 2010, suggesting the presence of systematic component of polarization and magnetic field alignment for the emergence of a new polarized emission region. In contrast, in …
We present the results of the power spectral density (PSD) analysis for the blazars Mrk\,421 and PKS\,2155$-$304, using good-quality, densely sampled light curves at multiple frequencies, covering 17 decades of the electromagnetic spectrum, and variability timescales from weeks up to a decade. The data were collected from publicly available archives of observatories at radio from OVRO, optical and infrared (B, V, R, I, J, H, and K-bands), X-rays from the {\it Swift} and the {\it Rossi} X-ray Timing Explorer, high and very high energy $γ-$rays from the {\it Fermi} and Very Energetic Radiation I…
The X-ray emission from blazars has been widely investigated using several space telescopes. In this work, we explored statistical properties of the X-ray variability in the blazars S5 0716+714, OJ 287, Mkn 501 and RBS 2070 using the archival observations from the XMM-Newton telescope between the period 2002-2020. Several methods of timing and spectral analyses including fractional variability, minimum variability timescale, power spectral density analyses and countrate distribution were performed. In addition, we fitted various spectral models to the observations as well as estimated hardness…
Self-consistent modeling of energy-dependent synchrotron polarization in blazars with application to Mrk 421
Centre for Space Research, North-West University（北威特大学空间研究中心）；Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Goiás（戈亚斯联邦大学物理研究所）；Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Astroparticule et Cosmologie（巴黎西岱大学，法国国家科学研究中心，亚原子粒子与宇宙学）；Ruhr Astroparticle and Plasma Physics Center (RAPP Center)（鲁尔天体粒子与等离子体物理中心（RAPP中心））；Ruhr University Bochum, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Astronomical Institute (AIRUB)（波鸿鲁尔大学，物理与天文学院，天文研究所（AIRUB））
In this work we interpret and discuss the time variable rotation measure (RM) found, for the first time over a 1-yr period, in the core region of a blazar. These results are based on a one-year, multi-frequency (15, 24, and 43 GHz) Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) monitoring of the TeV blazar Markarian 421 (Mrk 421). We investigate the Faraday screen properties and its location with respect to the jet emitting region. Given that the 43 GHz radio core flux density and the RM time evolution suggest a similar trend, we explore the possible connection between the RM and the accretion rate. Among th…
耀变体是一类活动星系核，其特征是相对论性喷流（喷流）朝向视线方向，是公认的河外TeV $γ$射线发射源。自2006年以来，MAGIC望远镜定期观测到三颗TeV亮耀变体Markarian（Mrk）421、Mrk 501和1 ES 1959+650，单次曝光时间为30至60分钟。MAGIC的灵敏度允许为每个这样的观测建立一个蟹状星云通量的30%的通量水平。在Mrk 421的情况下，在不同的时间尺度和X射线/TeV的排放量之间的高度相关性强通量的变化已被观察到。此外，还显示了2007/8年Mrk 501和1 ES 1959 +650光变曲线的初步测量结果。
The results of 8-year R-band photopolarimetric data of blazar Mrk 421 collected from February 2008 to May 2016 are presented, along with extensive multiwavelength observations covering from radio to TeV $γ$-rays around the flares observed in May 2008, March 2010, and April 2013. The most important results are found in 2013 when the source displayed in the R-band a very high brightness state of $11.29\pm 0.03$ mag ($93.60\pm 1.53$ mJy) on April 10th and a polarization degree of ($11.00\pm0.44$) on May 13th. The analysis of the optical data shows that the polarization variability is due to the s…
Blazars are prime candidate sources for the high energy neutrinos recently detected by IceCube. Being one of the brightest sources in the extragalactic X-ray and $γ$-ray sky as well as one of the nearest blazars to Earth, Mrk 421 is an excellent source for testing the scenario of the blazar-neutrino connection. Here, we model the spectral energy distribution of Mrk 421 during a 13-day flare in 2010 with unprecedented multi-wavelength coverage, and calculate the respective neutrino flux. We find a correlation between the $>1$ PeV neutrino and photon fluxes, in all energy bands. Using typical Ic…
We report on the variations of the physical parameters of the jet observed in the blazar Mrk 421, and discuss the origin of X-ray flares in the jet, based on the analysis of the several spectral energy distributions (SEDs). The SEDs are modeled using the one-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model and its parameters determined using a Markov chain Monte Carlo method. The lack of data at TeV energies means many of the parameters cannot be uniquely determined and are correlated. These are studied in detail. We found that the optimal solution can be uniquely determined only when we apply a cons…
The HAWC gamma ray observatory is located at the Sierra Negra Volcano in Puebla, Mexico, at an altitude of 4,100 meters. HAWC is a wide field of view array of 300 water Cherenkov detectors that are continuously surveying 2sr of the sky since March 2015. The large collected data sample consisting in more than 3 years makes HAWC an ideal instrument to perform an unbiased monitoring of blazars in the very-high-energy (VHE) emission. This is particular relevant for Mrk 421, one of the closest and brightest blazars in the gamma-ray/X-ray classified as highsynchrotron-peaked BL Lac class. In this wo…
Electromagnetic radiation from blazar jets often displays strong variability, extending from radio to $γ$-ray frequencies. In a few cases, this variability has been characterized using Fourier time lags, such as those detected in the X-rays from Mrk~421 using BeppoSAX. The lack of a theoretical framework to interpret the data has motivated us to develop a new model for the formation of the X-ray spectrum and the time lags in blazar jets based on a transport equation including terms describing stochastic Fermi acceleration, synchrotron losses, shock acceleration, adiabatic expansion, and spatia…
In this work, we study the short term flaring activity from the high synchrotron peaked blazar Mrk 501 detected by the FACT and H.E.S.S. telescopes in the energy range 2-20 TeV during June 23-24, 2014 (MJD 56831.86-56831.94). We revisit this major TeV flare of the source in the context of near simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of gamma-rays in MeV-GeV regime with Fermi-LAT, soft X-rays in 0.3-10 keV range with Swift-XRT, hard X-rays in 10-20 keV and 15-50 keV bands with MAXI and Swift-BAT respectively, UV-Optical with Swift-UVOT and 15 GHz radio with OVRO telescope. We have performed …
In this paper, we explore the behavior of optical polarization during the multi-wavelength outburst of the blazar Mrk 421 detected in February 2010. We use optical polarization measurements in the wavelength range 500-700 nm from SPOL observations available between January 1, 2010 and March 31, 2010 (MJD 55197-55286) including the period of multi-wavelength flaring activity detected from the source around February 16-17, 2010 (MJD 55243-55244). We also use near simultaneous optical and radio flux measurements from SPOL in V and R bands and OVRO at 15 GHz respectively. We find that the emission…
The energy dissipation mechanism in blazar jet is unknown. Blazar's flares could provide insights on this problem. Here we report statistical results of XMM-Newton X-ray flares of Mrk 421. We analyze all public XMM-Newton X-ray observations for Mrk 421, and construct the light curves. Through fitting light curves, we obtain the parameters of flare-profiles, such as peak flux ($F_{\rm p}$) and flaring time duration ($T_{\rm fl}$). It is found that both the distributions of $F_{\rm p}$ and $T_{\rm fl}$ obey a power-law form, with the same index of $α_{\rm F}=α_{\rm T}\approx1$. The statistical p…
NICER Perspective on TeV Blazar Mrk~421: X-ray Variability and Particle Acceleration
Janusz Gil Institute of Astronomy, University of Zielona Góra（乌罗兹瓦格拉大学扬努什·吉尔天体物理研究所）；Doctoral School of Exact and Technical Sciences, University of Zielona Góra（乌罗兹瓦格拉大学精确与技术科学博士学院）；CAS Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, Department of Astronomy, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学院大学天文系星系与宇宙学研究重点实验室）；School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学天文与空间科学学院）
基于 NICER 的 45 次 X 射线观测，研究了 TeV 耀变体 Mrk~421 的 X 射线变异性，发现对数抛物线模型最佳描述光谱，并揭示了硬度比、光子指数与曲率参数的相关性，支持能量依赖的粒子加速机制。
Removing outbursts from multiwavelength light curves of the blazar Mrk~421, we construct outburstless time series for this system. A model-independent power spectrum light curve analysis in the optical, hard X-ray and gamma-rays for this outburstless state and also the full light-curves, show clear evidence for a periodicity of ~ 310 days across all wavelengths studied. A subsequent full maximum likelihood analysis fitting an eclipse model confirms a periodicity of 310 \pm 1 days. The power spectrum of the signal in the outburstless state of the source does not follow a flicker noise behaviour…
We explore the axion-like particle (ALP)-photon oscillation effect in the $γ$-ray spectra of the blazars Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) and PG 1553+113, which are measured by the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes (MAGIC) and Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) with high precision. We investigate the constraints on the ALP parameter space using the Mrk 421 and PG 1553+113 observations of 15 and 5 phases, respectively. We find that the combined analysis with all the 15 phases improves the limits from the Mrk 421 observations. The combined limit set by the Mrk 421 observations has …
We present a targeted search for blazar flux-correlated high-energy ($\varepsilon_ν> 1$ TeV) neutrinos from six bright northern blazars, using the public database of northern-hemisphere neutrinos detected during "IC40" 40-string operations of the IceCube neutrino observatory (April 2008 to May 2009). Our six targeted blazars are subjects of long-term monitoring campaigns by the VERITAS TeV gamma-ray observatory. We use the publicly-available VERITAS lightcurves to identify periods of excess and flaring emission. These predefined intervals serve as our "active temporal windows" in a search for …
MAGIC and Multi-Wavelength Observations of Mrk 180 and 1ES 2344+514 in 2008
同时多波长（MW）的运动是最有前途的方法来调查仍然未被揭示的性质的耀变体，活动星系核是可变的所有时间尺度从无线电到TeV的能量。2008年，MAGIC合作组织了两次关于高频峰值blazar Mrk 180和1 ES 2344+514的MW活动。从无线电到TeV伽马射线，RATAN-600，Metsähovi，Effelsberg，VLBA（仅1 ES 2344+514），IRAM，KVA，Swift，AGILE，Fermi-LAT和MAGIC-I都参与了这些活动。Mrk 180是在2006年被MAGIC发现的，能量为TeV，而1 ES 2344+514是多年来已知的TeV发射体。由于它们的发射相当微弱，特别是在TeV能量下，这些活动代表了相当具有挑战性的观测。事实上，Mrk 180迄今为止尚未在MW活动中进行过研究，而对于1 ES 2344+514，迄今为止文献中仅报道了一次包括TeV测量的活动。在这篇文章中，我们将提出详细的MW光变曲线的两个来源，并描述复合宽范围的光谱能量分布的理论模型。
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory surveys the very high energy sky in the $\sim300$ to 100 TeV energy range and has detected two high-synchrotron-peaked BL Lacertae objects, Markarian 421 and Markarian 501 in a period of time of 837 days between June 2015 and December 2017. In this work, we present the detailed time-average spectral analysis. Using an extragalactic background light model, we address the difference in the intrinsic spectral properties between the two blazars above 1 TeV, preliminary results show that the intrinsic spectrum of Mrk 421 is better descr…
We present X-ray flux and spectral analyses of the three pointed Suzaku observations of the TeV high synchrotron peak blazar Mrk 421 taken throughout its complete operational duration. The observation taken on 5 May 2008 is, at 364.6 kiloseconds (i.e., 101.3 hours), the longest and most evenly sampled continuous observation of this source, or any blazar, in the X-ray energy 0.8 - 60 keV until now. We found large amplitude intra-day variability in all soft and hard bands in all the light curves. The discrete correction function analysis of the light curves in soft and hard bands peaks on zero l…
With their emission mainly coming from a relativistic jet pointing towards us, blazars are fundamental sources to study extragalactic jets and their central engines, consisting of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) fed by accretion discs. They are also candidate sources of high-energy neutrinos and cosmic rays. Because of the jet orientation, the non-thermal blazar emission is Doppler beamed; its variability is unpredictable and occurs on time-scales from less than one hour to years. The comprehension of the diverse mechanisms producing the flux and spectral changes requires well-sampled multiba…
Constraining the Photon Intensity of Extragalactic Background Light with the HAWC Observatory for the Blazar Mrk 421
Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México（墨西哥国立自治大学物理研究所）；Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas（恰帕斯自治大学）；Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México（墨西哥国立自治大学天文学研究所）；Universidad de Costa Rica（哥斯达黎加大学）；Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo（米却肯圣尼古拉斯德伊达尔戈大学）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University（密歇根州立大学物理与天文系）；Temple University（天普大学）
The spectral energy distribution (SED) of blazars is generally understood through the standard one-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model, where a strong correlation between X-ray and TeV gamma-ray fluxes is expected. Recently, for Mrk 421 the correlation was confirmed and interpreted within the SSC model arguing that a description of the correlation up to large flux values considerably restricts the value of the magnetic field under the assumption of an electron spectral index independent of the flux state. In this work, we extend the analysis done on Mrk 421 for other two high-energy peak…
Several models have been suggested to explain the fast gamma-ray variability observed in blazars, but its origin is still debated. One scenario is magnetic reconnection, a process that can efficiently convert magnetic energy to energy of relativistic particles accelerated in the reconnection layer. In our study, we compare results from state-of-the-art particle-in-cell simulations with observations of blazars at Very High Energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) gamma-rays. Our goal is to test our model predictions on fast gamma-ray variability with data and to constrain the parameter space of the model, suc…
