English

Recent observations of PKS 2155-304 with MAGIC and LST-1 in a multi-wavelength context

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2025-10-08 v1

Abstract

PKS 2155-304 is a well-known high-frequency peaked BL Lac (HBL) at redshift z=0.116, which has been extensively studied across the electromagnetic spectrum due to its rapid and large-amplitude variability. Several violent outbursts in X-rays and γ\gamma-rays have been observed in the past, with intra-night variability in very-high-energy γ\gamma-rays (VHE; E > 100 GeV) detected down to the minute timescale. The alternation of quiescent and enhanced states, observed with a tentative quasi-periodicity of 1.74 ±\pm 0.13 years in high-energy (HE; 100 MeV < E < 100 GeV) γ\gamma-rays, makes this source a key target also for ground-based γ\gamma-ray instruments and in particular for the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. Its brightness, proximity, and well-determined redshift make this γ\gamma-ray source a prime target for fundamental physics studies, including tests of Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV), searches for axion-like particles (ALPs), and constraints on the distribution of the extragalactic background light (EBL). In the last two years, PKS 2155-304 has been independently monitored by the Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes and the first Large-Sized Telescope (LST-1) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) located at the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma, Spain). The observations were carried out at large zenith angles (LZA; ZA > 55{\deg}), and the VHE data have been complemented with simultaneous observations in HE γ\gamma-rays (Fermi-LAT), X-rays (Swift-XRT) and optical wavelengths (ASAS-SN).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.04803,
  title  = {Recent observations of PKS 2155-304 with MAGIC and LST-1 in a multi-wavelength context},
  author = {Lisa Nikolić and Gaia Verna and Marina Manganaro and Giacomo Bonnoli and Ivan Agudo and Giuseppe Silvestri and Davide Cerasole and Francesco Schiavone and Franjo Podobnik and Jorge Otero-Santos},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.04803},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Presented at the 39th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2025), 2025