Related papers: The Changing Look Blazar B2 1420+32
We present the observational results of multi-colour optical monitoring of eight red blazars from 2003 September to 2004 February. The aim of our monitoring is to investigate the spectral variability as well as the flux variations at short…
Blazars are a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGN) that have a relativistic jet with a small viewing angle towards the observer. Recent results based on hadronic scenarios have motivated an ongoing discussion of how a blazar can produce…
Optical monitoring of S5 0716+714 was performed with a 60/90 Schmidt telescope in 2003 November and December and 2004 January for studying the variability of the object on short timescales. Due to the high brightness of the source we could…
The optical properties of the z = 0.435 quasar PKS 1222+216 (4C+21.35) are summarized since the discovery of impressive gamma-ray activity in this source by Fermi/LAT. Unlike several other gamma-ray-bright blazars, there appears to be…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) that show strong rest-frame optical/UV variability in their blue continuum and broad line emission are classified as "changing-look" AGN, or at higher luminosities changing look quasars (CLQs). These…
Blazars, a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGN), are known to be bright $\gamma$-ray sources, frequently exhibiting active (flaring) periods. The blazar PKS~2155-304 is a high synchrotron-peaked BL Lac object located at redshift…
OT 355 (4FGL J1734.3 + 3858) is a relatively rarely studied but highly variable, moderate-redshift (z = 0.975) flat-spectrum radio quasar (blazar). With this work, we aim to study its optical variability on different timescales, which can…
We report for the first time a gamma-ray and multi-wavelength nearly-periodic oscillation in an active galactic nucleus. Using the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) we have discovered an apparent quasi-periodicity in the gamma-ray flux (E…
We present a detailed investigation of the flaring activity observed from a BL Lac object, S5 0716+714 , during its brightest ever optical state in the second half of January 2015. Observed almost simultaneously in the optical, X-rays and…
We report radio imaging and monitoring observations in the frequency range 0.235 - 2.7 GHz during the flaring mode of PKS 2155-304, one of the brightest BL Lac objects. The high sensitivity GMRT observations not only reveal extended…
Context. Blazar AO 0235+164, located at redshift z = 0.94, has undergone several sharp multi-spectral-range flaring episodes during the last decades. In particular, the episodes peaking in 2008 and 2015, that received extensive…
The radio, optical, and $\gamma$-ray light curves of the blazar S5 1803+784, from the beginning of the {\it Fermi} Large Area Telescope (LAT) mission in August 2008 until December 2018, are presented. The aim of this work is to look for…
We study the ensemble optical variability of 276 FSRQs and 86 BL Lacs in the Palomar-QUEST Survey with the goal of searching for common fluctuation properties, examining the range of behavior across the sample, and characterizing the…
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…
The Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a strong gamma-ray flare on 2011 May 15 from a source identified as 4C 49.22, a flat spectrum radio quasar also known as S4 1150+49. This blazar, characterised…
During May 2013, a gamma-ray flare from the BL Lac object 1ES 1727+502 (z=0.055) has been detected with the VERITAS Cherenkov telescopes. This detection represents the first evidence of very-high-energy (E>100 GeV) variability from this…
The BL Lac object S5~0716+714, a highly variable blazar, underwent an impressive outburst in January 2015 (Phase A), followed by minor activity in February (Phase B). The MAGIC observations were triggered by the optical flux observed in…
We have recently proposed a simplified scenario for blazars in which these sources are classified as flat-spectrum radio quasars or BL Lacs according to the prescriptions of unified schemes, and to a varying combination of Doppler boosted…
Relativistic jets in AGN in general, and in blazars in particular, are the most energetic and among the most powerful astrophysical objects known so far. Their relativistic nature provides them with the ability to emit profusely at all…
The interest in blazars as candidate neutrino emitters grew after the 3$\sigma$ evidence for a contemporaneous joint photon and neutrino emission from the flaring blazar TXS 0506+056 in 2017. Blazars, a class of extragalactic sources with…