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Related papers: Blazar variability - expect the unexpected

200 papers

Blazars exhibit flux and spectral variations of largest amplitude at the highest frequencies. Therefore, monitoring their variability at X- and gamma-rays is the most effective tool to peer into the mighty powerhouse of these sources. High…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Elena Pian

A wide range of phenomena, from explosive transients to active galactic nuclei, exhibit variability at radio wavelengths on timescales of a few years. Characterizing the rate and scale of variability in the radio sky can provide keen…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-05-21 Yjan A. Gordon , Peter S. Ferguson , Michael N. Martinez , Eric J. Hooper

We present the results of a time series analysis of the long-term radio lightcurves of four blazars: 3C 279, 3C 345, 3C 446, and BL Lacertae. We exploit the data base of the University of Michigan Radio Astronomy Observatory (UMRAO)…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-18 Jong-Ho Park , Sascha Trippe

Time variability of the photon flux is a known feature of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and in particular of blazars. The high frequency peaked BL Lac (HBL) object PKS 2155-304 is one of the brightest sources in the TeV band and has been…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-08-14 Jill Chevalier , Max Anton Kastendieck , Frank Rieger , Gilles Maurin , Jean-Philippe Lenain , Giovanni Lamanna

The variability of the high-frequency peaked BL Lac object PKS 2155-304 is studied using almost 10 years of optical, X-ray and gamma-rays data. Publicly available data have been gathered and analyzed with the aim to characterize the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-01-16 J. Chevalier , D. A. Sanchez , P. D. Serpico , J. -P. Lenain , G. Maurin

Optical observations of a sample of 12 $\gamma$-ray bright blazars from four optical data archives, AAVSO, SMARTS, Catalina, and Steward Observatory, are compiled to create densely sampled light curves spanning more than a decade. As a part…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-12-15 Gopal Bhatta

Blazars are known to display strong and erratic variability at almost all the wavelengths of electromagnetic spectrum. Presently, variability studies at high-energies (hard X-rays, gamma-rays) are hampered by low sensitivity of the…

We present a comprehensive, two-decade, multiwavelength variability study of the blazar PKS 1510-089, one of the most prominent and extensively monitored flat-spectrum radio quasars. Using Fermi-LAT $\gamma$-ray data together with Swift-XRT…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-04-02 M. Zacharias , A. Wierzcholska

Blazars exhibit multiwavelength variability, a phenomenon whose underlying mechanisms remain elusive. This study investigates the origin of such variability through leptonic blazar emission simulations, focusing on stochastic fluctuations…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-09-10 Hannes Thiersen , Michael Zacharias , Markus Böttcher

The extragalactic $\gamma$-rays sky observed by Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) is dominated by blazars. In the fourth release of the Fermi-LAT Point Source Catalog (4FGL), are sources showing a multifrequency behavior similar to that of…

We present an in-depth and systematic variability study of a sample of 20 powerful blazars, including 12 BL Lacs and 8 flat spectrum radio quasars, applying various analysis tools such as flux distribution, symmetry analysis, and time…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2020-03-18 Gopal Bhatta , Niraj Dhital

Context. 3C 454.3 is a very active flat spectrum radio quasar (blazar) that has undergone a recent outburst in all observed bands, including the optical. Aims. In this work we explore the short-term optical variability of 3C 454.3 during…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-05-27 R. Bachev , E. Semkov , A. Strigachev , B. Mihov , A. C. Gupta , S. Peneva , E. Ovcharov , A. Valcheva , A. Lalova

We present multifrequency Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of J16021+3326. These observations, along with variability data obtained from the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) candidate gamma-ray blazar monitoring program,…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-18 S. E. Tremblay , G. B. Taylor , J. L. Richards , A. C. S. Readhead , J. F. Helmboldt , R. W. Romani , S. E. Healey

Here we report our recent results of variability studies in optical and X-ray bands of three blazars namely 3C 273, PKS 2155 - 304 and BL Lacertae with XMM-Newton. We found large amplitude optical to X-rays variability in 3C 273, and PKS…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2017-12-20 A. C. Gupta

Blazars are characterized by large amplitude and fast variability, indicating that the electron distribution is rapidly changing, often on time scales shorter than the light crossing time. We study the time dependent behavior of the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Marco Chiaberge , Gabriele Ghisellini

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.…

We carried out multi-color optical monitoring of a sample of ten blazars from 2005 to 2011. The sample contains 3 LBLs, 2 IBLs, 4 HBLs, and 1 FSRQ. Our monitoring focused on the long-term variability and the sample included nine BL Lac…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-08-08 Nankun Meng , Xiaoyuan Zhang , Jianghua Wu , Jun Ma , Xu Zhou

We have monitored the flat spectrum radio quasar, 3C 279, in the optical $B$, $V$, $R$ and $I$ passbands from 2018 February to 2018 July for 24 nights, with a total of 716 frames, to study flux, colour and spectral variability on diverse…

We study the quasi-simultaneous near-IR, optical, UV, and X-ray photometry of eleven gamma-ray selected blazars for which redshift estimates larger than 1.2 have been recently provided. Four of these objects turn out to be high-power…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-04 P. Padovani , P. Giommi , A. Rau

Long-lasting, very bright multiwavelength flares of blazar jets are a curious phenomenon. The interaction of a large gas cloud with the jet of a blazar may serve as a reservoir of particles entrained by the jet. The size and density…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-07-26 Michael Zacharias , Jonathan Heil , Markus Boettcher , Felix Jankowsky , Jean-Philippe Lenain , Stefan Wagner , Alicja Wierzcholska