arXiv subjects

Raj Prince

Publications and source records attributed to Raj Prince.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Multi-wavelength temporal and spectral analysis of Blazar S5 1803+78

Blazars are a class of AGN, one of their jets is pointed towards the earth. Here, we report about the multi-wavelength study for blazar S5 1803+78 between MJD 58727 to MJD 59419. We analysed $γ$-ray data collected by Fermi-LAT, X-ray data collected by Swift-XRT \& NuSTAR, optical photons detected by Swift-UVOT \& TUBITAK observatory in Turkey. Three flaring states are identified by analysing the $γ$-ray light curve. A day scale variability is observed throughout the flares with the similar rise and decay times suggesting a compact emission region located close to the central engine. Cross-correlation studies are carried out between $γ$-ray, radio, and X-ray bands, and no significant correlation is detected. The $γ$-ray and optical emission are significantly correlated with zero time lag suggesting a co-spatial origin of them. A significant positive correlation between the R-I index and the V magnitude is observed. The broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs) modeling was performed for all the flaring episodes as well as for one quiescent state for comparison. SEDs are best fitted with the synchrotron-self Compton (SSC) model under a one-zone leptonic scenario. The SED modeling shows that to explain the high flaring state strong Doppler boosting is required.

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arXiv2022

Broadband Spectro-temporal Study on Blazar TXS 1700+685

We attempt to present a multiwavelength variability and correlation study as well as detailed multi-waveband spectral characteristics of the May 2021 $γ$-ray flare of the blazar source TXS 1700+685. The multi-wavelength observation from \textit{Fermi}-LAT, \textit{Swift}-XRT/UVOT as well as radio archival data are used for our spectro-temporal investigation. We estimate the variability time-scale of the source from the flux doubling time in different flaring regions detected in \textit{Fermi}-LAT observation and the shortest variability time is used to put a constraint on the minimum Doppler factor and on the size of the emission region. We have detected a statistically significant quasi-periodic oscillation feature (QPO) at $\sim$ 17 days. The broad-band emission is satisfactorily represented during its flaring state with a leptonic synchrotron and inverse Compton component. From the broadband spectral modeling, we observe the external Comptonization of the seed photons originating in the broad line region to be dominant compared to the dusty torus. This is further supported by the fact that the emission region is also found to be residing within the BLR. The equipartition value implies the energy density of the magnetic field in the jet comoving frame is weak, and that is also reflected in the magnetic field and low power corresponding to the magnetic field component of the jet. In order to produce the high energy hump, we need the injection of a large population of high energy electrons and/or the presence of strong magnetic field; and we observe the later component to be sub-dominant in our case. The flat rising and steep falling profile in the $γ$-ray SED as well as the break or spectral curvature at $\sim$ 1 GeV are in commensuration with the flat-spectrum radio quasar (FSRQ) nature of the source.

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arXiv2022

Wavelength-resolved Reverberation Mapping of quasar CTSC30.10: Dissecting MgII and FeII emission regions

We present the results of the reverberation monitoring aimed at MgII broad line and FeII pseudocontinuum for the luminous quasar CTS C30.10 (z = 0.90052) with the Southern African Large Telescope covering the years 2012-2021. We aimed at disentangling the MgII and UV FeII variability and the first measurement of UV FeII time delay for a distant quasar. We used several methods for time-delay measurements and determined both FeII and MgII time delays as well as performed a wavelength-resolved time delay study for a combination of MgII and FeII in the 2700 - 2900 Årestframe wavelength range. We obtain the time delay for MgII of $275.5^{+12.4}_{-19.5}$ days in the rest frame, while for FeII we have two possible solutions of $270.0^{+13.8}_{-25.3}$ days and $180.3^{+26.6}_{-30.0}$ in the rest frame. Combining this result with the old measurement of FeII UV time delay for NGC 5548 we discuss for the first time the radius-luminosity relation for UV FeII with the slope consistent with $0.5$ within uncertainties. Since FeII time delay has a shorter time-delay component but lines are narrower than MgII, we propose that the line delay measurement is biased towards the BLR part facing the observer, with the bulk of the Fe II emission may arise from the more distant BLR region, one that is shielded from the observer.

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arXiv2021

Viewing angle observations and effects of evolution with redshift, black hole mass, and Eddington ratio in quasar based cosmology

This study is focused on the observational measurement of the viewing angle of individual quasars by modeling the broadband quasar spectrum ranging from the infra-red (IR) to the soft X-ray band. Sources are selected from various published catalogs, and their broadband quasi-simultaneous spectral data points were collected and used to model. We started with a COSMOS sample of type-1 sources which have broadband photometric points. Then, to include more data points, we cross-matched the COSMOS with the SDSS DR14 quasar catalog, and eventually, we find 90 sources that have broadband data ranging from IR to soft X-ray. The broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling is done in Xspec by using the optxagnf and the SKIRTOR models for the X-ray, UV, Optical, and IR regimes for each source. The whole sample is divided into four bins with respect to redshift, black hole (BH) mass, and Eddington ratio with an equal number of sources in each bin. The viewing angle is estimated in each bin, and its evolution with respect to redshift, BH mass, and Eddington ratio is examined. As a result, we did not find any significant evolution of viewing angle with those parameters within the 95$\%$ confidence interval. We conclude that the use of quasars in cosmology to determine the expansion rate of the universe is therefore justified, and biases are not expected.

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arXiv2021

Broadband study of BL Lac during flare of 2020: Spectral evolution and emergence of HBL component

BL Lacertae (BL Lac) is categorized as TeV blazar and considered as a possible source of astrophysical neutrinos. In 2020, the brightest X-ray flare ever detected from it. A detailed study can answer many puzzling questions related to multiband emissions and fast-flux variability often seen in this kind of source. We have performed the temporal and spectral analysis of the brightest flare. The variability is characterized by the fractional variability amplitude and the variability time. We found that the source has crossed all its previous limits of flux and reached the maximum ever seen from it in optical and X-rays. It is highly variable in X-rays with fractional variability above 100$\%$ (1.8397$\pm$0.0181) and the fastest variability time of 11.28 hours within a day. The broadband light curves correlation with X-ray suggest a time lag of one day. A broadband SED modeling is pursued to understand the possible physical mechanisms responsible for broadband emission. Modeling requires two emission regions located at two different sites to explain the low and high flux states. A significant spectral change is observed in the optical-UV and X-ray spectrum during the high state, which eventually leads to shifts in the location of the synchrotron peak towards higher energy, suggesting an emergence of a new HBL component.

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arXiv2021

A comprehensive study of 2019-2020 flare of OJ 287 using AstroSat, Swift, and NuSTAR

OJ 287 is a well-studied binary black hole system, that occasionally exhibits bright X-ray and optical flares. Here we present a detailed spectral study of its second brightest X-ray flare observed during 2019-2020 using archival Swift and NuSTAR observations along with ToO observations from AstroSat. The entire flaring period is divided into three states, defined as low, intermediate, and high states. The variation of hardness ratio (HR) with 0.3-10.0 keV integrated flux suggests a \enquote{softer-when-brighter} behavior, as also previously reported based on flux-index variations. Simultaneous high state X-ray spectra obtained using Swift, NuSTAR and AstroSat are very steep with a power-law index $>$2. A significant spectral change is observed in AstroSat-SXT and LAXPC spectrum which is consistent with Swift-XRT and NuSTAR spectrum. Together, optical-UV and X-ray spectrum during the high flux state, suggesting the emergence of a new high BL Lacertae (HBL) component. We have modeled the synchrotron peak with publicly available code named GAMERA for low, intermediate, and high flux state. Our modeling suggests the need of high magnetic field to explain the high state under the leptonic scenarios. Increase in the magnetic field value inside the jet could be linked to the increase in accretion rate as expected in the BH-disk impact scenario. The color-magnitude diagram reveals a \enquote{bluer-when-brighter} spectral energy distribution chromatism during the flaring period. Different chromatism or no chromatism at various occasions suggests a complex origin of optical emission, which is believed to be produced by disc impact or through synchrotron emission in the jet.

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arXiv2021

Multi wavelength study of 4C+28.07

4C+28.07 is a $γ$-ray Flat Spectrum Radio Quasar (FSRQ) type source. It is often monitored at different frequencies, though long-term multi-wavelength data of this source have not been modelled in detail before. We have analyzed $\sim 12$ years (Aug, 2008 - May, 2020) of Fermi-LAT data with a binning of 10 days time scale and observed three distinctive flaring states. Each flaring state consists of different phases of activity, namely, pre-flare, flare \& post-flare regions. $γ$-ray spectral analysis of these different activity phases has been performed and the best fit model for its spectra is found to be a Log-parabola model. We have also studied the correlation of simultaneous $γ$-ray light curves with the optical \& radio counterparts in these flaring states and report the DCF with a 95\% significance level. A large time delay is found between radio and gamma-ray data for two flares, indicating two zones of emission. We have fitted the multi-wavelength data with a two-zone leptonic model. In our two-zone leptonic model, the maximum required power in the jet is 9.64 $\times$ 10$^{46}$ erg sec$^{-1}$, which is lower than its Eddington luminosity $2.29\times 10^{47}$ erg sec$^{-1}$.

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arXiv2021

Broadband Modeling of Low Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei Detected in Gamma Rays

Low luminosity active galactic nuclei are more abundant and closer to us than the luminous ones but harder to explore as they are faint. We have selected the four sources NGC 315, NGC 4261, NGC 1275, and NGC 4486, which have been detected in gamma rays byFermi-LAT. We have compiled their long-term radio, optical, X-ray data from different telescopes, analysed XMM-Newton data for NGC 4486, XMM-Newton and Swift data for NGC 315. We have analysed the Fermi-LAT data collected over the period of 2008 to 2020 for all of them. Electrons are assumed to be accelerated to relativistic energies in sub-parsec scale jets, which radiate by synchrotron and synchrotron self-Compton emission covering radio to gamma-ray energies. This model can fit most of the multi-wavelength data points of the four sources. However, the gamma-ray data points from NGC 315 and NGC 4261 can be well fitted only up to 1.6 GeV and 0.6 GeV, respectively in this model. This motivates us to find out the origin of the higher energy γ-rays detected from these sources. Kilo-parsec scale jets have been observed previously from these sources in radio and X-ray frequencies. If we assume γ-rays are also produced in kilo-parsec scale jets of these sources from inverse Compton scattering of starlight photons by ultra-relativistic electrons, then it is possible to fit the gamma-ray data at higher energies. Our result also suggests that strong host galaxy emission is required to produce GeV radiation from kilo-parsec scale jets.

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arXiv2021

Study of Temporal and Spectral variability for Blazar PKS 1830-211 with Multi-Wavelength Data

A study of the gravitationally lensed blazar PKS 1830-211 was carried out using multi waveband data collected by Fermi-LAT, Swift-XRT and Swift-UVOT telescopes between MJD 58400 to MJD 58800 (9 Oct 2018 to 13 Nov 2019). Flaring states were identified by analysing the gamma-ray light curve. Simultaneous multi-waveband SED were obtained for those flaring periods. A cross-correlation analysis of the multi-waveband data was carried out, which suggested a common origin of the gamma-ray and X-ray emission. The broadband emission mechanism was studied by modelling the SED using a leptonic model. Physical parameters of the blazar were estimated from the broadband SED modelling. The blazar PKS 1830-211 is gravitationally lensed by at least two galaxies and has been extensively studied in the literature because of this property. The self-correlation of the gamma-ray light curve was studied to identify the signature of lensing, but no conclusive evidence of correlation was found at the expected time delay of 26 days.

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arXiv2021

Spectral Modeling of Flares in Long Term Gamma-Ray Light Curve of PKS 0903-57

A detailed study of the BL Lacertae PKS 0903-57 has been done for the first time with 12 years of Fermi Large Area Telescope data. We have identified two bright gamma-ray flares in 2018 and 2020. Many sub-structures were observed during multiple time binning of these flares. We have performed detailed temporal and spectral study on all the sub-structures separately. A single-zone emission model is used for time-dependent leptonic modeling of the multi-wavelength spectral energy distributions. Our estimated values of variability time scale, magnetic field in the emission region, jet power obtained from leptonic modeling of PKS 0903-57 are presented in this work. Currently, we have a minimal number of observations in X-rays and other bands. Hence, more simultaneous multi-wavelength monitoring of this source is required to have a better understanding of the physical processes happening in the jet of the blazar PKS 0903-57.

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arXiv2021

Multi-wavelength Analysis and Modeling of OJ 287 During 2017-2020

Context. The blazar OJ 287 has been proposed as a binary black hole system based on its periodic optical outburst. Among blazars with parsec scale jets, the black hole binary systems are very rare and hence this source is very interesting to study. Aims. The BL Lac OJ 287 is an interesting object for multi-wavelength study due to its periodic outbursts. We have analyzed the optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray data of OJ 287 for the period of 2017-2020. There are several high states in optical-UV and X-ray frequencies during this period. Based on the observed variability in optical and X-ray frequencies the entire period 2017-2020 is divided into five segments, referred to as A, B, C, D, & E in this paper. A detailed temporal and spectral analysis is performed to understand the nature of its flaring activities. Methods. To understand the temporal variability in this source we have studied the intra-day, and fractional variability for all the various states, and along with that fast variability time was also estimated to understand the nature of variability. Further, the multi-wavelength SED modeling is performed to know more about the physical processes responsible for the simultaneous broadband emission and the fast variability. Results. The Fermi-LAT observations show a moderate flux level of this source in gamma-ray frequency throughout this period, though flux variability has been observed. The source has shown a strong flux variability in X-ray, optical, and UV during early 2017 and mid-2020 when the source was in a very high state. A single zone SSC emission model is considered to model the spectral energy distributions and this helps us to explore the nature of this BL Lac with binary super-massive black holes.

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arXiv2021

Time Delay of MgII Emission Response for the Luminous Quasar HE 0435-4312: Towards Application of High-Accretor Radius-Luminosity Relation in Cosmology

Using the six years of the spectroscopic monitoring of the luminous quasar HE 0435-4312 ($z=1.2231$) with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), in combination with the photometric data (CATALINA, OGLE, SALTICAM, and BMT), we determined the rest-frame time-delay of $296^{+13}_{-14}$ days between the MgII broad-line emission and the ionizing continuum using seven different time-delay inference methods. Artefact time-delay peaks and aliases were mitigated using the bootstrap method, prior weighting probability function as well as by analyzing unevenly sampled mock light curves. The MgII emission is considerably variable with the fractional variability of $\sim 5.4\%$, which is comparable to the continuum variability ($\sim 4.8\%$). Because of its high luminosity ($L_{3000}=10^{46.4}\,{\rm erg\,s^{-1}}$), the source is beneficial for a further reduction of the scatter along the MgII-based radius-luminosity relation and its extended versions, especially when the high-accreting subsample that has an RMS scatter of $\sim 0.2$ dex is considered. This opens up a possibility to use the high-accretor MgII-based radius-luminosity relation for constraining cosmological parameters. With the current sample of 27 reverberation-mapped sources, the best-fit cosmological parameters $(Ω_{\rm m}, Ω_Λ)=(0.19; 0.62)$ are consistent with the standard cosmological model within 1$σ$ confidence level.

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arXiv2021

Broadband study of OQ 334 during its flaring state

The blazar OQ 334 displayed a γ-ray flare in 2018, after being in the long quiescent γ-ray state since 2008. Subsequent to the flare, the source was in a higher γ-ray flux state and again flared in 2020. We present here the first spectral and timing analysis of the source at its various flaring states. During the higher γ-ray state, we found four major peaks identified as P1, P2, P3, and P4. From timing analysis, we found the rise and decay time of the order of hours with the fastest variability time of 9.01+/-0.78 hr. We found the highest γ-ray photon of 77 GeV during P4, which suggests the location of the γ-ray emitting region at the outer edge of the broad-line region or the inner edge of the torus. The γ-ray spectral analysis of the source indicates that during P4, the γ-ray spectrum clearly deviates from the power-law behavior. From cross-correlation analysis of the γ-ray and radio lightcurves, we found that the two emission regions are separated by about 11 pc. Our broadband spectral energy distribution modeling of the source during quiescent and active phases indicates that more electron and proton power are required to change the source from low flux to high flux state. The Anderson-Darling test and histogram fitting results suggest that the three days binned γ-ray fluxes follow a lognormal distribution.

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arXiv2021

Viewing angle effects in quasar application to cosmology

The symmetry axes of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are randomly distributed in space but highly inclined sources are heavily obscured and are not seen as quasars with broad emission lines. The obscuring torus geometry determines the average viewing angle, and if the torus geometry changes with the redshift, this average viewing angle will also change. Thus the ratio between the isotropic luminosity and observed luminosity may change systematically with redshift. Therefore, if we use quasars to measure the luminosity distance by evaluating the isotropic absolute luminosity and measuring the observed flux, we can have a redshift-dependent bias which can propagate to cosmological parameters. We propose a toy model for testing the effect of viewing angle uncertainty on measurement of the luminosity distance. The model is based on analytical description of the obscuring torus applied to one-parameter observational data. It illustrates the possible change of the torus covering factor between the two chosen redshift ranges. We have estimated the possible error on specific cosmological parameters (H0,Omega_m) for the flat Lambda-CDM cosmology if a method is calibrated at low redshift and applied to the higher redshift. The errors on cosmological parameters due to potential dependence of viewing angle on redshift are found to be potentially significant, and the effect will have to be accommodated in the future in all quasar-based cosmological methods. A careful systematic study of AGN mean viewing angle across redshift is necessary, with the use of appropriate samples and models which uniquely determine the inclination of each source.

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arXiv2020

Gamma-Ray Flares in Long Term Light Curve of 3C 454.3

3C 454.3 is frequently observed in flaring state. The long term light curve of this source has been analysed with 9 year (August 2008 - July 2017) data from Fermi LAT detector. We have identified five flares and one quiescent state. The flares have sub-structures with many peaks during flaring phase. We have estimated the rise and decay time of the flares and compared with flares of other similar sources. The modeling of gamma ray spectral energy distributions shows in most cases Log parabola function gives the best fit to the data. We have done time dependent leptonic modeling of two of the flares, for which simultaneous multi-wavelength data are available. These two long lasting flares Flare-2A and Flare-2D continued for 95 days and 133 days respectively. We have used the average values of Doppler factor, injected luminosity in electrons, size of the emission region and the magnetic field in the emission region in modeling these flares. The emission region is assumed to be in the broad line region in our single zone model. The energy losses (synchrotron, synchrotron self-Compton, external Compton) and escape of electrons from the emission region have been included while doing the modelling. Although, the total jet powers required to model these flares with leptonic model are higher compared to other sources, they are always found to be lower than the Eddington's luminosity of 3C 454.3. We also select some flaring peaks and show that time variation of the Doppler factor or the injected luminosity in electrons over short time scales can explain their light curves.

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arXiv2020

Broadband variability and correlation study of 3C 279 during flare of 2017-2018

A multiwavelength temporal and spectral analysis of flares of 3C 279 during November 2017--July 2018 are presented in this work. Three bright gamma-ray flares were observed simultaneously in X-ray and Optical/UV along with a prolonged quiescent state. A "harder-when-brighter" trend is observed in both gamma-rays and X-rays during the flaring period. The gamma-ray light curve for all the flares are binned in one-day time bins and a day scale variability is observed. Variability time constrains the size and location of the emission region to 2.1$\times$10$^{16}$ cm and 4.4$\times$10$^{17}$ cm, respectively. The fractional variability reveals that the source is more than 100\% variable in gamma-rays and it decreases towards the lower energy. A cross-correlation study of the emission from different wavebands is done using the \textit{DCF} method, which shows a strong correlation between them without any time lags. The zero time lag between different wavebands suggest their co-spatial origin. This is the first time 3C 279 has shown a strong correlation between gamma-rays and X-rays emission with zero time lag. A single zone emission model was adopted to model the multiwavelength SEDs by using the publicly available code GAMERA. The study reveals that a higher jet power in electrons is required to explain the gamma-ray flux during the flaring state, as much as, ten times of that required for the quiescent state. However, more jet power in magnetic field has been observed during the quiescent state compared to the flaring state.

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arXiv2019

Two-zone emission modeling of PKS 1510-089 during the high state of 2015

PKS 1510-089 is one of the most variable blazars in the third Fermi-LAT source catalog. During 2015, this source has shown four flares identified as flare A, B, C, and D in between three quiescent states Q1, Q2, and Q3. The multi-wavelength data from Fermi-LAT, Swift-XRT/UVOT, OVRO, and SMA observatory are used in our work to model these states. Different flux doubling times have been observed in different energy bands which indicate there could be multiple emission zones. The flux doubling time from the gamma-ray and X-ray light curves are found to be 10.6 hr, 2.5 days, and the average flux doubling time in the optical/UV band is 1 day. It is possible that the gamma-ray and optical/UV emission are produced in the same region whereas X-ray emission is coming from a different region along the jet axis. We have also estimated the discrete correlations functions (DCFs) among the light curves of different energy bands to infer about their emission regions. However, our DCF analysis does not show significant correlation in different energy bands though it shows peaks in some cases at small time lags. We perform a two-zone multi-wavelength time-dependent SED modeling with one emission zone located near the outer edge of the broad line region (BLR) and another further away in the dusty/molecular torus (DT/MT) region to study this high state.

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arXiv2018

Multi-frequency variability study of Ton 599 during high activity of 2017

In this work, I have presented a multi-frequency variability and correlation study of the blazar Ton 599, which was observed first time in flaring state at the end of 2017. Data from \textit{Fermi}-LAT, Swift-XRT/UVOT, Steward Observatory, and OVRO (15 GHz) is used, and it is found that the source is more variable in $γ$-ray and optical/UV than X-ray and radio. Large variations in the degree of polarization (DoP) and position angle (PA) is noticed during the flaring period. Maximum flux during $γ$-ray flare is found to be 12.63$\times$10$^{-7}$ at MJD 58057.5 from the 1-day bin light curve (LC), which is the maximum flux ever achieved by this source. It is further found that all the peaks of flare are very symmetric, which suggests the cooling time of electrons is much smaller than light crossing time. Using 1-day as a fast variability time, the size of the $γ$-ray emission region is estimated as 1.88$\times$10$^{16}$ cm. Two 42 GeV of photons are detected during the flare which puts a constraint on the location of the emission region, and it is found that the $γ$-ray emitting blob is located at the outer edge or outside the broad line region (BLR). A trend of increasing fractional variability towards higher energies is also seen. Strong correlations were seen between $γ$-ray, optical/UV, X-ray, and radio (15 GHz) emission. A small time lag between $γ$-ray and optical/UV suggest their emission to be co-spatial while lag of 27 days between $γ$-ray and OVRO (15 GHz) suggest two different emission zone separated by a distance of $\sim$ 5 pc.

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