English
Related papers

Related papers: Exploring Short-Term Optical Variability of Blazar…

200 papers

We present optical light curves for the period 1996-2000, of two of the brightest known EGRET BL Lac objects: PKS 2005-489 and PKS 2155-304, the latter also one of the few known TeV sources. For both objects, quiescent epochs of low level…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 T. P. Dominici , Z. Abraham , R. Teixeira , P. Benevides-Soares

In 2021 BL Lacertae underwent an extraordinary activity phase, which was intensively followed by the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) Collaboration. We present the WEBT optical data in the BVRI bands acquired at 36 observatories around…

The origin of fast flux variability in blazars is a long-standing problem, with many theoretical models proposed to explain it. In this study, we focus on BL Lacertae to model its spectral energy distribution (SED) and broadband light…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-08-22 Rukaiya Khatoon , Markus Boettcher , Raj Prince

A majority of blazars exhibit variable emission across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, observed over various time scales. In particular, discernible periodic patterns are detected in the $\gamma$-ray light curves of a few blazars, such…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-06-18 Alba Rico , A. Domínguez , P. Peñil , M. Ajello , S. Buson , S. Adhikari , M. Movahedifar

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 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…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2011-02-11 Anne Bauer , Charles Baltay , Paolo Coppi , Nancy Ellman , Jonathan Jerke , David Rabinowitz , Richard Scalzo

Characteristic variability timescales in blazar gamma-ray light curves can provide insight into the physical processes responsible for the gamma-ray variability. The power spectral density (PSD) is capable of revealing such timescales,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-11-06 James L. Ryan , Aneta Siemiginowska , Malgosia Sobolewska , Jonathan Grindlay

We have studied the rapid X-ray variability of three extragalactic TeV gamma-ray sources; Mrk 421, Mrk 501 and PKS 2155-304. Analyzing the X-ray light curves obtained from ASCA and/or RXTE observations between 1993 and 1998, we have…

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.…

Aims. We aim to investigate the extreme variability properties of the TeV blazar S4 0954+65 using optical photometric and polarisation observations carried out between 2017 and 2023 using three ground-based telescopes. Methods. We examined…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-11-01 Ashwani Pandey , Rumen Bachev , Bozena Czerny , Paul J. Wiita , Alok C. Gupta , Anton Strigachev , Adam Popowicz

We investigate the use of optical photometric variability to select and identify blazars in large-scale time-domain surveys, in part to aid in the identification of blazar counterparts to the ~30% of gamma-ray sources in the Fermi 2FGL…

Compact Symmetric Objects (CSOs) are a distinct category of jetted active galactic nuclei (AGN) whose optical variability characteristics have not been well investigated. We present here the results of our investigation on the optical flux…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-05-07 Subhashree Swain , Vaidehi S. Paliya , D. J. Saikia , C. S. Stalin , Arya Venugopal , A. K. Bhavya , C. D. Ravikumar

Observations of very high energy gamma-rays from blazars provide information about acceleration mechanisms occurring in their innermost regions. Studies of variability in these objects allow a better understanding of the mechanisms at play.…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-05-19 HESS Collaboration , A. Abramowski , F. Acero , F. Aharonian , A. G. Akhperjanian , G. Anton , U. Barres de Almeida , A. R. Bazer-Bachi , Y. Becherini , B. Behera , W. Benbow , K. Bernlohr , A. Bochow , C. Boisson , J. Bolmont , V. Borrel , J. Brucker , F. Brun , P. Brun , R. Buhler , T. Bulik , I. Busching , T. Boutelier , P. M. Chadwick , A. Charbonnier , R. C. G. Chaves , A. Cheesebrough , J. Conrad , L. -M. Chounet , A. C. Clapson , G. Coignet , L. Costamante , M. Dalton , M. K. Daniel , I. D. Davids , B. Degrange , C. Deil , H. J. Dickinson , A. Djannati-Atai , W. Domainko , L. O'C. Drury , F. Dubois , G. Dubus , J. Dyks , M. Dyrda , K. Egberts , P. Eger , P. Espigat , L. Fallon , C. Farnier , S. Fegan , F. Feinstein , M. V. Fernandes , A. Fiasson , A. Foerster , G. Fontaine , M. Fussling , S. Gabici , Y. A. Gallant , L. Gerard , D. Gerbig , B. Giebels , J. F. Glicenstein , B. Glueck , P. Goret , D. Goering , D. Hampf , M. Hauser , S. Heinz , G. Heinzelmann , G. Henri , G. Hermann , J. A. Hinton , A. Hoffmann , W. Hofmann , P. Hofverberg , M. Holleran , S. Hoppe , D. Horns , A. Jacholkowska , O. C. de Jager , C. Jahn , I. Jung , K. Katarzynski , U. Katz , S. Kaufmann , M. Kerschhaggl , D. Khangulyan , B. Khelifi , D. Keogh , D. Klochkov , W. Kluzniak , T. Kneiske , Nu. Komin , K. Kosack , R. Kossakowski , G. Lamanna , J. -P. Lenain , T. Lohse , C. -C. Lu , V. Marandon , A. Marcowith , J. Masbou , D. Maurin , T. J. L. McComb , M. C. Medina , J. Mehault , R. Moderski , E. Moulin , M. Naumann-Godo , M. de Naurois , D. Nedbal , D. Nekrassov , N. Nguyen , B. Nicholas , J. Niemiec , S. J. Nolan , S. Ohm , J-F. Olive , E. de Ona Wilhelmi , B. Opitz , K. J. Orford , M. Ostrowski , M. Panter , M. Paz Arribas , G. Pedaletti , G. Pelletier , P. -O. Petrucci , S. Pita , G. Puehlhofer , M. Punch , A. Quirrenbach , B. C. Raubenheimer , M. Raue , S. M. Rayner , O. Reimer , M. Renaud , R. de los Reyes , F. Rieger , J. Ripken , L. Rob , S. Rosier-Lees , G. Rowell , B. Rudak , C. B. Rulten , J. Ruppel , F. Ryde , V. Sahakian , A. Santangelo , R. Schlickeiser , F. M. Schoeck , A. Schoenwald , U. Schwanke , S. Schwarzburg , S. Schwemmer , A. Shalchi , I. Sushch , M. Sikora , J. L. Skilton , H. Sol , L. Stawarz , R. Steenkamp , C. Stegmann , F. Stinzing , G. Superina , A. Szostek , P. H. Tam , J. -P. Tavernet , R. Terrier , O. Tibolla , M. Tluczykont , K. Valerius , C. van Eldik , G. Vasileiadis , C. Venter , L. Venter , J. P. Vialle , A. Viana , P. Vincent , M. Vivier , H. J. Voelk , F. Volpe , S. Vorobiov , S. J. Wagner , M. Ward , A. A. Zdziarski , A. Zech , H. -S. Zechlin

We report the first extensive optical flux and spectral variability study of the TeV blazar TXS 0506+056 on intra-night to long-term timescales using BVRI data collected over 220 nights between January 21, 2017 to April 9, 2022 using 8…

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…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-08-15 Daniela Dorner , Robert J. Lauer

We have been using the 0.76-m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) at Lick Observatory to optically monitor a sample of 157 blazars that are bright in gamma rays, being detected with high significance ($\ge 10\sigma$) in one year by…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-01-27 Daniel P. Cohen , Roger W. Romani , Alexei V. Filippenko , S. Bradley Cenko , Benoit Lott , WeiKang Zheng , Weidong Li

We report the first results of a systematic investigation to characterize blazar variability power spectral densities (PSDs) at optical frequencies using densely sampled (5--15 minutes integration time), high photometric accuracy…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-03-10 Arti Goyal

This paper reports X-ray spectral observations of a relatively nearby z = 0.048 BL Lacertae (BL Lac) object 1ES1959+650, which is a potential TeV emitter. The observations include 31 short pointings made by the Unconventional Stellar Aspect…

Blazars are highly variable sources over timescales that can be as low as minutes. This is the case of the High Energy Peaked BL Lac (HBL) objects showing strong variability in X-rays, which highly correlate with that of the TeV emission.…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-17 I. Donnarumma , A. Tramacere , S. Turriziani , L. Costamante , R. Campana , A. De Rosa , E. Bozzo