arXiv subjects

G. Fossati

Publications and source records attributed to G. Fossati.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2013

The Contrasting Nature of Gamma-Ray/Optical Variability in the Blazar PKS 0208-512 During Successive Outbursts

The Yale/SMARTS optical-near-IR monitoring program has followed the variations in emission of the Fermi-LAT monitored blazars in the southern sky with closely spaced observations since 2008. We report the discovery of an optical-near-IR (OIR) outburst with no accompanying gamma-rays in the blazar PKS 0208-512, one of the targets of this program. While the source undergoes three outbursts of 1 mag or more at OIR wavelengths lasting for longer than 3 months during 2008-2011, only interval 1 and 3 have corresponding bright phases in GeV energies lasting longer than 1 month. The OIR outburst during interval 2 is comparable in brightness and temporal extent to the OIR flares during intervals 1 and 3 which do have gamma-ray counterparts. Gamma-ray and OIR variability are very well-correlated in most cases in the Fermi blazars and the lack of correlation in this case is anomalous. By analyzing the gamma-ray, OIR, and supporting multi-wavelength variability data in details, we speculate that the location of the outburst in the jet during interval 2 was closer to the black hole where the jet is more compact and the magnetic field strength is higher, and the bulk Lorentz factor of the material in the jet is smaller. These result in a much lower Compton dominance and no observable gamma-ray outburst during interval 2.

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arXiv2012

An Optical-Near-Infrared Outburst with No Accompanying Gamma-Rays in the Blazar PKS 0208-512

We report the discovery of an anomalous flare in a bright blazar, namely, PKS 0208-512, one of the targets of the Yale/SMARTS optical-near-infrared (OIR) monitoring program of Fermi blazars. We identify three intervals during which PKS 0208-512 undergoes outbursts at OIR wavelengths lasting for longer than 3 months. Its brightness increases and then decreases again by at least 1 magnitude in these intervals. In contrast, the source undergoes bright phases in GeV energies lasting for longer than 1 month during intervals 1 and 3 only. The OIR outburst during interval 2 is comparable in brightness and temporal extent to the OIR flares during intervals 1 and 3 which do have gamma-ray counterparts. By analyzing the gamma-ray, OIR, and supporting multi-wavelength variability data in details, we speculate that the OIR outburst during interval 2 was caused by a change in the magnetic field without any change in the total number of emitting electrons or Doppler factor of the emitting region. Alternatively, it is possible that the location of the outburst in the jet during interval 2 was closer to the black hole where the jet is more compact and the bulk Lorentz factor of the material in the jet is smaller. We also discuss the complex OIR spectral behavior during these three intervals.

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arXiv2012

Similarity of the Optical-IR and Gamma-Ray Time Variability of Fermi Blazars

We present the time variability properties of a sample of six blazars, AO 0235+164, 3C 273, 3C 279, PKS 1510-089, PKS 2155-304, and 3C 454.3, at optical-IR as well as gamma-ray energies. These observations were carried out as a part of the Yale/SMARTS program during 2008-2010 that has followed the variations in emission of the bright Fermi-LAT-monitored blazars in the southern sky with closely-spaced observations at BVRJK bands. We find the optical/IR time variability properties of these blazars to be remarkably similar to those at the gamma-ray energies. The power spectral density (PSD) functions of the R-band variability of all six blazars are fit well by simple power-law functions with negative slope such that there is higher amplitude variability on longer timescales. No clear break is identified in the PSD of any of the sources. The average slope of the PSD of R-band variability of these blazars is similar to what was found by the Fermi team for the gamma-ray variability of a larger sample of bright blazars. This is consistent with leptonic models where the optical-IR and gamma-ray emission is generated by the same population of electrons through synchrotron and inverse-Compton processes, respectively. The prominent flares present in the optical-IR as well as the gamma-ray light curves of these blazars are predominantly symmetric, i.e., have similar rise and decay timescales, indicating that the long-term variability is dominated by the crossing time of radiation or a disturbance through the emission region rather than by the acceleration or energy-loss timescales of the radiating electrons. In the blazar 3C 454.3, which has the highest-quality light curves, the location of a large gamma-ray outburst during 2009 December is consistent with being in the jet at ~18 pc from the central engine. This poses strong constraints on the models of high energy emission in the jets of blazars.

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arXiv2012

Using the SED to locate the Gamma-ray emission site of powerful blazars

The location of the Gamma-ray emission of powerful blazars is a matter of active debate. Is the location within the UV emitting sub-pc scale broad line region, or farther out at pc scales where the molecular torus IR emission dominates? We present a diagnostic that connects three observables, the synchrotron and external Compton peak frequencies and the Compton dominance (the ratio of Compton to synchrotron luminosity) to the seed photon energy and energy density. We discuss encouraging preliminary results and discuss how to use our diagnostic to understand the location of the Gamma-ray emission as a function of source power through the use of multiwavelength observations.

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arXiv2012

SMARTS optical and infrared monitoring of 12 gamma-ray bright blazars

We present multiwavelength data for twelve blazars observed from 2008-2010 as part of an ongoing optical-infrared photometric monitoring project. Sources were selected to be bright, southern (dec < 20 deg) blazars observed by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, with daily and weekly gamma-ray fluxes made available from the start of the Fermi mission. Light curves are presented for the twelve blazars in BVRJK at near-daily cadence. We find that optical and infrared fluxes are well correlated in all sources. Gamma-ray bright flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) in our sample have optical/infrared emission correlated with gamma-rays consistent with inverse Compton-scattering models for GeV emission. In FSRQs, the variability amplitude decreases towards optical/IR wavelengths, consistent with the presence of a thermal emission component from the accretion disk varying on significantly longer timescales than the jet synchrotron emission. In BL Lac objects, variability is mainly constant across wavelengths, consistent with a weak or radiatively inefficient disk. FSRQs have redder optical-infrared colors when they are brighter, while BL Lac objects show no such trend. Several objects show complicated color-magnitude behavior: AO 0235+164 appears in two different states depending on whether it is gamma-ray bright or not. OJ 287 and 3C 279 show some hysteresis tracks in their color-magnitude diagrams. Individual flares may be achromatic or otherwise depart from the trend, suggesting different jet components becoming important at different times. We present a time-dependent spectral energy distribution of the bright FSRQ 3C 454.3 during its December 2009 flare, which is well fit by an external Compton model in the bright state, although day to day changes pose challenges to a simple one-zone model. All data from the SMARTS monitoring program are publicly available on our website.

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arXiv2008

Correlated variability in the blazar 3C 454.3

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 observations from the SMARTS telescopes, optical, UV and X-ray data from the Swift satellite, and public-release gamma-ray data from Fermi. We find an excellent correlation between the IR, optical, UV and gamma-ray light curves, with a time lag of less than one day. The amplitude of the infrared variability is comparable to that in gamma-rays, and larger than at optical or UV wavelengths. The X-ray flux is not strongly correlated with either the gamma-rays or longer wavelength data. These variability characteristics find a natural explanation in the external Compton model, in which electrons with Lorentz factor gamma~10^(3-4) radiate synchrotron emission in the infrared-optical and also scatter accretion disk or emission line photons to gamma-ray energies, while much cooler electrons (gamma~10^(1-2)) produce X-rays by scattering synchrotron or other ambient photons.

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arXiv2008

Multiwavelength Observations of Markarian 421 in March 2001: an Unprecedented View on the X-ray/TeV Correlated Variability

(Abridged) We present a detailed analysis of week-long simultaneous observations of the blazar Mrk421 at 2-60 keV X-rays (RXTE) and TeV gamma-rays (Whipple and HEGRA) in 2001. The unprecedented quality of this dataset enables us to establish firmly the existence of the correlation between the TeV and X-ray luminosities, and to start unveiling some of its more detailed characteristics, in particular its energy dependence, and time variability. The source shows strong, highly correlated variations in X-ray and gamma-ray. No evidence of X-ray/gamma-ray interband lag is found on the full week dataset (<3 ks). However, a detailed analysis of the March 19 flare reveals that data are not consistent with the peak of the outburst in the 2-4 keV X-ray and TeV band being simultaneous. We estimate a 2.1+/-0.7 ks TeV lag. The amplitudes of the X-ray and gamma-ray variations are also highly correlated, and the TeV luminosity increases more than linearly w.r.t. the X-ray one. The strong correlation supports the standard model in which a unique electrons population produces the X-rays by synchrotron radiation and the gamma-ray component by inverse Compton scattering. However, for the individual best observed flares the gamma-ray flux scales approximately quadratically w.r.t. the X-ray flux, posing a serious challenge to emission models for TeV blazars. Rather special conditions and/or fine tuning of the temporal evolution of the physical parameters of the emission region are required in order to reproduce the quadratic correlation.

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arXiv2004

Correlation between the TeV and X-ray emission in high--energy peaked BL Lac objects

We discuss the correlation between the evolution of the TeV emission and X-ray radiation observed in high-energy peaked BL Lac objects. We describe such a correlation by a simple power law. In the first part of this work we present correlations obtained for the activity of Mrk~501 observed in 1997 April and for the activity of Mrk~421 observed in 2000 February. We also discuss results of similar correlation obtained for this source by other authors. They report an almost quadratic correlations observed between the evolution of the TeV and X-ray emission. In the second part of this paper we present a phenomenological model which describes the evolution of the synchrotron and inverse Compton emission of a simple spherical homogeneous source. Neglecting the radiative cooling of the particles we derive analytical expressions that describe the evolution. Then we use a numerical code to investigate the impact of radiative cooling on the evolution. The quadratic correlation observed during the decay phase of the flare observed in Mrk~421 on 2001 March 19 appears problematic for this basic modeling. The quadratic correlation can be explained only for specific choices of the spectral bands used for the calculation. Therefore, looking for more robust solutions, we investigate the evolution of the emission generated by a cylindrical source. However this model does not provide robust solutions for the problem of a quadratic correlation. factor. Finally we briefly discuss the possible influence of the light travel time effect on our results.

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arXiv2003

Multiwavelength Observations of Strong Flares From the TeV-Blazar 1ES 1959+650

Following the detection of strong TeV gamma-ray flares from the BL Lac object 1ES 1959+650 with the Whipple 10 m Cherenkov telescope on May 16 and 17, 2002, we performed intensive Target of Opportunity (ToO) radio, optical, X-ray and TeV gamma-ray observations from May 18, 2002 to August 14, 2002. Observations with the X-ray telescope RXTE and the Whipple and HEGRA gamma-ray telescopes revealed several strong flares, enabling us to sensitively test the X-ray/gamma-ray flux correlation properties. Although the X-ray and gamma-ray fluxes seemed to be correlated in general, we found an ``orphan'' gamma-ray flare that was not accompanied by an X-ray flare. After describing in detail the radio (UMRAO, VLA), optical (Boltwood, Abastumani), X-ray (RXTE) and gamma-ray (Whipple, HEGRA) light curves and Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) we present initial modeling of the SED with a simple Synchrotron Self-Compton (SSC) model. With the addition of another TeV blazar with good broadband data, we consider the set of all TeV blazars to begin to look for a connection of the jet properties to the properties of the central accreting black hole thought to drive the jet. Remarkably, the temporal and spectral X-ray and gamma-ray emission characteristics of TeV blazars are very similar, even though the masses estimates of their central black holes differ by up to one order of magnitude.

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arXiv2002

Spectral Energy Distributions of Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars observed with BeppoSAX

We report the BeppoSAX observations of 6 Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars. Three of them have a clear detection up to 100 keV with the PDS instrument. For 4 objects the X-ray spectrum is satisfactorily fitted by a power-law continuum with Galactic absorption. 2251+158 show the presence of absorption higher than the galactic value, while the spectrum of the source 0208-512 shows a complex structure, with evidence of absorption at low energy. We construct the Spectral Energy Distributions adding historical data to the broad band X-ray spectra obtained with $Beppo$SAX and reproduce them with a one-zone Synchrotron-Inverse Compton model (including both SSC and External Compton). The implications are briefly discussed.

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arXiv2002

A full orbit XMM-Newton observation of PKS 2155-304

XMM observed the BL Lac PKS 2155-304 for a full orbit (about 150 ksec) on 2000 November 19-21. Preliminary results on the temporal and spectral analysis of data from the EPIC PN camera and Optical Monitor are presented. The variability amplitude depends systematically on energy, however the slopes of the structure functions of the light-curves in different bands do not appear to be significantly different. No evidence of time lags is found by cross correlating the light-curves in different bands.

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arXiv2002

Four Years Monitoring of Blazar PKS 2155-304 with BeppoSAX: Probing the Dynamics of the Jet

PKS 2155--304 is one of the brightest blazars in the X-ray band. It was repeatedly monitored with BeppoSax during three long campaigns of about 2 days each in November of 1996, 1997 and 1999. The source underwent different states of intensity and was clearly variable with successive flares detected. This paper presents temporal and spectral analysis to study the X-ray variability trends for a blazar. The rich phenomenology is interpreted in the context of a model where relativistic electrons are accelerated through internal shocks taking place in the jets. The most important parameter turns out to be the initial time interval between the two shells ejected from the central engine to produce the flare, which may determine the structure of the shock and in turn the physical quantities of the emitting region to reproduce the observed trends of the X-ray variability (abridged).

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arXiv2001

Spectral Energy Distributions of 3C 279 revisited: BeppoSAX observations and variability models

We present the BeppoSAX observations of 3C 279 performed in 1997 January 13-23 simultaneously with gamma-ray pointings with EGRET on board CGRO and optical observations at the Torino Observatory (1997 January 11-18). ISO data close to this epoch are also available. We compare the derived Spectral Energy Distribution with those obtained at all other epochs with adequate multiwavelength coverage. Simple spectral models fitted to the multiepoch SEDs suggest that changes in intensity can be ascribed mainly to the variation of the bulk Lorentz factor of the plasma in the jet.

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arXiv2001

Hard X-ray properties of blazars

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 presented here. The X-ray spectra of blazars show trends as a function of their power, confirming that the blazar overall energy distribution can be parameterized on the basis of one parameter only, i.e. the bolometric luminosity. This is confirmed by the relatively new hard (2-10 keV) X-ray data. Our results confirm the idea that in low power objects the X-ray emission mechanism is the synchrotron process, dominating both the soft and the hard X-ray emissions. Low energy peaked BL Lac objects are intermediate, often showing harder spectra in the hard X-ray band, suggesting that the synchrotron process dominates in the soft band, with the inverse Compton process dominating at high energies. The most powerful objects have X-ray spectra that are flat both in the soft and in the hard band, consistent with a dominating inverse Compton component.

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arXiv2001

Extreme synchrotron BL Lac objects

We performed an observational program with the X-ray satellite BeppoSAX to study objects with extreme synchrotron peak frequencies (nu_peak > 1 keV). Of the seven sources observed, four showed peak frequencies in the range 1-5 keV, while one (1ES 1426+428) displayed a flat power law spectrum (alpha= 0.92), locating its synchrotron peak at or above 100 keV. This is the third source of this type ever found, after Mkn 501 and 1ES 2344+514. Our data confirm the large nu_peak variability of this class of sources, compared with lower peaked objects. The high synchrotron peak energies, flagging the presence of high energy electrons, make the extreme BL Lacs also good candidates for TeV emission, and therefore good probes for the IR background.

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arXiv2000

Demographics of Blazars

We discuss the preliminary results of an extensive effort to address the fundamental, and yet un-answered, question that can be trivialized as: ``are there more blue or red blazars?''. This problematic is tightly connected with the much debated issue of the unified picture(s) of radio-loud AGNs, which in turn revolves around the existence, and the properties of relativistic jets. We address this question by comparing -- simultaneously -- the properties of the collection of heterogeneously selected samples that are available now, with the predictions of a set of plausible unifications scenarios. We show that it is already possible to make significant progress even by using only the present samples. The important role of selection effects is discussed. For instance we show that the multiple flux selections typical of available surveys could induce some of the correlations found in color-color diagrams. These latter results should apply to any study of flux limited samples.

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arXiv2000

Complex Spectral Variability from Intensive Multi-wavelength Monitoring of Mrk421 in 1998

We conducted a multi-frequency campaign for the TeV blazar Mrk~421 in 1998 April. The campaign started from a pronounced high amplitude flare recorded by SAX and Whipple; ASCA observation started three days later. In the X-ray data, we detected multiple flares, occuring on time scales of about one day. ASCA data clearly reveal spectral variability. The comparison of the data from ASCA, EUVE and RXTE indicates that the variability amplitudes in the low energy synchrotron component are larger at higher photon energies. In TeV Gamma-rays, large intra-day variations -- which were correlated with the X-ray flux -- were observed when results from three Cherenkov telescopes are combined. The RMS variability of TeV Gamma--rays was similar to that observed in hard X-rays, above 10 keV. The X-ray light curve reveals flares which are almost symmetric for most of cases, implying the dominant time scale is the light crossing time through the emitting region. The structure function analysis based on the continuous X-ray light curve of seven days indicates that the characteristic time scale is ~0.5 day. The analysis of ASCA light curves in various energy bands appears to show both soft (positive) and hard (negative) lags. These may not be real, as systematic effects could also produce these lags, which are all much smaller than an orbit. If the lags of both signs are real, these imply that the particle acceleration and X-ray cooling time scales are similar.

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arXiv2000

BeppoSAX Observations of Markarian 501 in June 1999

We present the preliminary results of a long BeppoSAX observation of the BL Lac object Mkn501 carried out in June 1999. The source was fainter than found during the BeppoSAX pointings of 1997 and 1998, but is still detected with a good signal-to-noise ratio up to ~40 keV. The X-ray spectrum in the energy range 0.1-40 keV, produced through synchrotron radiation, is steeper than in the previous years, it is clearly curved, and peaks (in nu*F_nu) at ~0.5 keV. This energy is much lower than those at which the synchrotron component was found to peak in 1997 and 1998. Some intraday variability suggests that activity of the source on small time scales accompanies the large long time scale changes of brightness and spectrum.

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