Relentless multi-wavelength variability of Mrk 421 and Mrk 501
Abstract
Mrk 421 and Mrk 501 are two close, bright and well-studied high-synchrotron-peaked blazars, which feature bright and persistent GeV and TeV emission. We use the longest and densest dataset of unbiased observations of these two sources, obtained at TeV and GeV energies during five years with FACT and Fermi-LAT. To characterize the variability and derive constraints on the emission mechanism, we augment the dataset with contemporaneous multi-wavelength observations from radio to X-rays. We correlate the light curves, identify individual flares in TeV energies and X-rays, and look for inter-band connections, which are expected from the shock propagations within the jet. For Mrk 421, we find that the X-rays and TeV energies are well correlated with close to zero lag, supporting the SSC emission scenario. The timing between the TeV, X-ray flares in Mrk 421 is consistent with periods expected in the case of Lense-Thirring precession of the accretion disc. The variability of Mrk 501 on long-term periods is also consistent with SSC, with a sub-day lag between X-rays and TeV energies. Fractional variability for both blazars shows a two bump structure with the highest variability in the X-ray and TeV bands.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2108.08130,
title = {Relentless multi-wavelength variability of Mrk 421 and Mrk 501},
author = {Vitalii Sliusar and Axel Arbet-Engels and Dominik Baack and Matteo Balbo and Adrian Biland and Thomas Bretz and Jens Buss and Daniela Dorner and Laura Eisenberger and Dominik Elsaesser and Dorothee Hildebrand and Roman Iotov and Adelina Kalenski and Karl Mannheim and Alison Mitchell and Dominik Neise and Maximilian Noethe and Aleksander Paravac and Wolfgang Rhode and Bernd Schleicher and Roland Walter},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.08130},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
8 pages, 3 figures