Related papers: Rapid variability of blazars
Blazars are active galactic nuclei with relativistic jets pointed almost directly at Earth. Blazars are characterized by strong, apparently stochastic flux variability at virtually all observed wavelengths and timescales, from minutes to…
To search for optical variability on a wide range of timescales, we have carried out photometric monitoring of two flat spectrum radio quasars, 3C 454.3 and 3C 279, plus one BL Lac, S5 0716+714, all of which have been exhibiting remarkably…
The spectral properties of blazars seem to follow a phenomenological sequence according to the source luminosity. By inferring the source physical parameters through (necessarily) modeling the blazar spectra, we have previously proposed…
The second-order Fermi acceleration (Fermi-II) driven by turbulence may be responsible for the electron acceleration in blazar jets. We test this model with time-dependent simulations. The hard electron spectrum predicted by the Fermi-II…
Results obtained with BeppoSAX observations of blazars within various collaborative programs are presented. The spectral similarity "paradigm", whereby the spectral energy distributions of blazars follow a sequence, leading to a unified…
Blazars are known for their extreme variability across the electromagnetic spectrum. Variability at very short timescales can push the boundaries between competing models offering us much needed discriminating power. This is particularly…
BL Lacertae objects are extreme extragalactic sources characterized by the emission of strong and rapidly variable nonthermal radiation over the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Synchrotron emission followed by inverse Compton scattering in…
(abridged) We present a new time-dependent multi-zone radiative transfer code and its application to study the SSC emission of Mrk 421. The code couples Fokker-Planck and Monte Carlo methods, in a 2D geometry. For the first time all the…
Blazars can be divided into two sub-classes namely high energy and low energy peaked blazars. In spectral energy distribution, the first synchrotron hump of the former class peaks in UV/X-rays and in IR/optical bands for the latter class.…
Blazars display variable emission across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, with timescales that can range from a few minutes to several years. Our recent work has shown that a sample of five blazars exhibit hints of periodicity with a…
We present the results of a series of radio, optical, X-ray and gamma-ray observations of the BL Lac object S50716+714 carried out between April 2007 and January 2011. The multi-frequency observations were obtained using several ground and…
In this presentation, we report the results of intraday variability in the optical (BVRI bands) and hard X-ray band (3-79 keV) in a number of blazars. In the optical microvariability studies of the blazars S5 0716+714 and BL Lac, we…
We present results of variability study of a sample of 20 powerful blazars using Fermi/LAT (0.1--300 GeV) observations. We studied decade-long observations applying various analysis tools such as flux distribution, symmetry analysis, and…
The blazar 3C 454.3 was revealed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to be in an exceptionally high flux state in July 2008. Accordingly, we performed a multi-wavelength monitoring campaign on this blazar using IR and optical…
We compare the rise and decay timescales of $\sim$200 long-term ($\sim$weeks-months) GeV and R-band outbursts and $\sim$25 short-term ($\sim$hr-day) GeV flares in a sample of 10 blazars using light curves from the Fermi-LAT and the…
Recent Cerenkov observations of the two BL Lac objects PKS 2155-304 and Mkn 501 revealed TeV flux variability by a factor ~2 in just 3-5 minutes. Even accounting for the effects of relativistic beaming, such short timescales are challenging…
The overall spectra (SED) of blazars, from radio to gamma-ray energies, seem to obey well defined trends, with a continuity of properties between blazars of different classes. To quantify this statement we can either investigate their…
Blazars are known to show periods of quiescence followed by outbursts visible throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. We present a novel maximum likelihood approach to capture this bimodal behavior by examining blazar radio variability in…
We have considered all blazars observed in the X-ray band and for which the slope of the X-ray spectrum is available. We have collected 421 spectra of 268 blazars, including 12 archival unpublished ASCA spectra of 7 blazars whose analysisis…
Time-dependent injection can cause non-linear cooling effects, which lead to a faster energy loss of the electrons in jets. The most obvious result is the appearance of unique breaks in the SED, which would normally be attributed to a…