Multiwavelength Doppler factors for Fermi-detected gamma-ray loud blazars

We collect a sample of 51 Fermi-detected gamma-ray loud blazars with known radio Doppler factors and study properties of the Doppler factors of blazars at optical,X-ray and gamma-ray bands.A basic assumption is that the emission from the radio to gamma-ray bands of the blazars are produced by the nonthermal radiation of accelerated particles in a jet.Our results show that (1) the Doppler factors of blazars are a function of frequency,with the Doppler factor decreasing with frequency from the radio to X-ray ...     

The estimations of four basic parameters for gamma-ray loud blazars

The method used in our previous papers is adopted to estimate four basic pa-rameters (the central black hole mass (M), the boosting factor (or Doppler factor) (δ), the (d)) for 59 γ-ray loud blazars (20 BL Lacertae objects and 39 fiat spectrum radio quasars).The central black hole masses estimated for this sample are in a range of from 107 M⊙to 109 M⊙. In the case of black hole mass, there is no clear difference between BL Lacertae objects and flat spectrum radio quasars, which is consistent with the previous results sug-gesting that the central black hole masses do not play an important role in the evolutionary sequence of blazars.     

Optical intra-day variability timescales and black hole mass of the blazars

In this paper, we have used optical intra-day variability archive data to calculate the central black hole masses and Eddington luminosities for nine blazars: 3C 66A, AO 0235+164, S5 0716+714, PKS 0735+178, OJ 287, 1215+303, 1216−010, 1308+326, PKS 1510−089, Mrk 501 and BL Lac using intra-day variability timescales and periodicity (if present). The calculated central black hole mass of these nine blazars using intra-day variability timescales are found to be in the range of 1.22-25.30 × 10⁷ M_⊙ and corresponding Eddington luminosity in the range of 1.58-32.88 × 10⁴⁵ erg s⁻¹. The black hole mass and Eddington luminosity are in the range of 0.32-31.23 × 10⁸ M_⊙ and 1.23-31.20 × 10⁴⁶ erg s⁻¹, respectively when optical Doppler factor is taken into account. The comparison show, our estimated values of black hole mass are consistent with earlier reported values. Periodicity were present in two blazars OJ 287 and 1216−010 which give the central black hole mass of these blazars in the range of 1.32-14.6 × 10⁷ M_⊙ and corresponding Eddington luminosity in the range of 1.60-19.0 × 10⁴⁵ erg s⁻¹, respectively.     

A theoretical unifying scheme for gamma-ray bright blazars

The phenomenology of γ-ray bright blazars can be accounted for by a sequence in the source power and intensity of the diffuse radiation field surrounding the relativistic jet. Correspondingly, the equilibrium particle distribution peaks at different energies. This leads to a trend in the observed properties: an increase of the observed power corresponds to: (i) a decrease in the frequencies of the synchrotron and inverse Compton peaks, and (ii) an increase in the ratio of the powers of the high- and low-energy spectral components. Objects along this sequence would be observationally classified respectively as high-frequency BL Lac objects, low-frequency BL Lac objects, high-polarization quasars and low-polarization quasars.   The proposed scheme is based on the correlations among the physical parameters derived in the present paper by applying to 51 γ-ray loud blazars two of the most accepted scenarios for the broad-band emission of blazars, namely the synchrotron self-Compton and external Compton models. This also explains the observational trends presented by Fossati et al., dealing with the spectral energy distributions of all blazars. This gives us confidence that our scheme applies to all blazars as a class.     

Long-term optical-infrared color variability of blazars

The long-term optical and infrared color variability of blazars has been investigated with monitoring data from the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System(SMARTS). The sample in this study consists of 49 flat spectrum radio quasars(FSRQs) and 22 BL Lacertae objects(BL Lacs). The fractional variability amplitudes of each source have been calculated in both optical R band and infrared J band. Overall, the variability amplitudes of FSRQs are larger than those of BL Lacs. The results also suggest that the variability amplitude of most FSRQs is larger at a lower energy band(J band) than at a higher one(R band), but the variability amplitude of BL Lacs is larger at the higher energy band. Both types of blazars display color variation along with variability in brightness. However, they show different variation behaviors in general. In the whole data set, 35 FSRQs exhibit redder-whenbrighter trends, and 11 FSRQs exhibit opposite trends; 11 BL Lacs follow bluer-whenbrighter trends, and seven BL Lacs follow opposite trends. A detailed examination indicates that there are 10 blazars showing redder-when-brighter trends in their low state, and bluer-when-brighter or stable-when-brighter trends in their high state. Some more complicated color behaviors have also been detected in several blazars. The nonthermal jet emission and the thermal emission from the accretion disk are employed to explain the observed color behaviors.     

Inverse Compton scattering model for gamma-ray production in MeV blazars

It is proposed that the spectra of so-called 'MeV blazars' can be explained in terms of previously developed models of the external Comptonization of accretion disc radiation, provided that the structure of the inner and outer parts of the accretion disc is different. The electron acceleration is saturated by the inverse Compton losses in the inner geometrically thick disc and the outer geometrically thin disc at different maximum energies; this causes the appearance of two spectral components, one strongly peaked in the MeV energy range and the other of a power-law type extending through the GeV energy range. The spectra, computed in terms of such a simple geometrical model, are in good agreement with observations of the MeV blazar PKS 0208−512. They are consistent with the transient appearance of a strong MeV peak, the power-law spectrum in the EGRET energy range, and a possible cut-off at high energies.     

On the intrinsic shape of the gamma-ray spectrum for Fermi blazars

The curvature of the γ-ray spectrum in blazars may reflect the intrinsic distribution of emitting electrons, which will further give some information on the possible acceleration and cooling processes in the emitting region. The γ-ray spectra of Fermi blazars are normally fitted either by a single power-law(PL) or a log-normal(call Logarithmic Parabola, LP) form. The possible reason for this difference is not clear. We statistically explore this issue based on the different observational properties of 1419 Fermi blazars in the 3 LAC Clean Sample. We find that the γ-ray flux(100 Me V–100 Ge V) and variability index follow bimodal distributions for PL and LP blazars, where the γ-ray flux and variability index show a positive correlation. However, the distributions of γ-ray luminosity and redshift follow a unimodal distribution. Our results suggest that the bimodal distribution of γ-ray fluxes for LP and PL blazars may not be intrinsic and all blazars may have an intrinsically curved γ-ray spectrum, and the PL spectrum is just caused by the fitting effect due to less photons.     

The optical spectral slope variability of 17 blazars

Many quasi-simultaneous optical observations of 17 blazars are obtained from previous papers published over the last 19 years in order to investigate the spectral slope variability and understand the radiation mechanism of blazars. The long-period dereddened optical spectral slopes are calculated. We analyse the average spectral slope distribution, which suggests that the spectra of flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and high energy peaked BL Lac objects (HBLs) are probably deformed by other emission components. The average spectral slopes of low energy peaked BL Lac objects(LBLs), which scatter around 1.5, show a good accordance with the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) loss-dominated model. We present and discuss the variability between the spectral slope and optical luminosity. The spectra of all HBLs and LBLs get flatter when they turn brighter, while for FSRQs this trend does not exist or may even be reversed. This phenomenon may imply that there is a thermal contribution to the optical spectrum for FSRQs. For the FSRQ 1156+295, there is a hint that the slope gets flatter at both the brightest and faintest states. Our result shows that three subclasses locate in different regions in the pattern of slope variability indicator versus average spectral slope. The relativistic jet mechanism is supported by the significant correlation between the optical Doppler factor and the average spectral slope.     

Mid-infrared variability of blazars: a view from NEOWISE survey

We studied mid-infrared (MIR) variability of a large sample of blazars detected by LAT/Fermi (called Fermi-detected blazars) and those not detected by LAT/Fermi (called non-Fermi-detected blazars) in order to investigate any difference in the variability characteristics between them as well as between FSRQs and BL Lacs. Making use of NEOWISE archival data from October 2013 to December 2017, we constructed the long-term 3.4 μm and 4.6 μm light curves of 2,573 blazars and computed their intrinsic variability amplitudes, \(\varPsi \). As a result, we found that (1) Fermi-detected blazars show higher \(\varPsi \) than non-Fermi-detected blazars; (2) Fermi-detected FSRQs show higher \(\varPsi \) than non-Fermi-detected FSRQs; (3) Fermi-detected BL Lacs show higher \(\varPsi \) than non-Fermi-detected BL Lacs; (4) FSRQs show higher \(\varPsi \) than BL Lacs. By comparing their distributions of “\(\mathit{var}\_\mathit{flg}\)” in the ALLWISE database, we also found that Fermi-detected blazars/FSRQs/BL Lacs tend to be more variable than non-Fermi-detected blazars/FSRQs/BL Lacs. For the Fermi-detected blazars, there are highly significant correlations between the flux densities and spectral indices in the MIR and gamma-ray bands. These results imply that the activity in the two bands is connected. Our results are consistent with several earlier results on the differences between Fermi-detected blazars and non-Fermi-detected blazars. We also give some possible explanations about the statistical results.     

Fine-scale structure in relativistic jets and rapid variability in blazars

Several versions of the shock-in-jet model of the blazars' variability have been proposed in recent years. This family of models resorts to the interaction between a relativistic shock and a feature in the parsec-scale jet associated to an AGN in order to explain the origin of the rapid variability recently observed in many extragalactic radio sources. The nature of the involved features varies from one particular model to another. Here I discuss a possible origin for this variety of subparsec-sized features in the frame of the two-fluid model of extragalactic jets. Macroscopic Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities are shown to be capable of producing the required plurality of morphologies in the innermost part of the beams, in such a way that the different models have particular ranges of applicability according to the differencies in the parameters of the flows.     

The microsecond variability of cosmic gamma-ray bursts

The possibility of microsecond flares from cosmic gamma-ray sources is considered taking into account theoretical models. Several observations effects resulted from these flares are also presented.     

Gamma-ray luminosity function of blazars and the cosmic gamma-ray background: evidence for the luminosity-dependent density evolution

We present a comprehensive study of the gamma-ray luminosity function (GLF) of blazars and their contribution to the extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray background (EGRB). Radio and gamma-ray luminosity correlation is introduced with a modest dispersion, consistent with observations, to take into account the radio detectability, which is important for blazar identification. Previous studies considered only pure luminosity evolution (PLE) or pure density evolution, but here we introduce the luminosity-dependent density evolution (LDDE) model, which is favored on the basis of the evolution of the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of AGNs. The model parameters are constrained by likelihood analyses of the observed redshift and gamma-ray flux distributions of the EGRET blazars. Interestingly, we find that the LDDE model gives a better fit to the observed distributions than the PLE model, indicating that the LDDE model is also appropriate for gamma-ray blazars and that the jet activity is universally correlated with the accretion history of AGNs. We then find that only 25–50% of the EGRB can be explained by unresolved blazars with the best-fit LDDE parameters. Unresolved blazars can account for all the EGRB only with a steeper index of the faint-end slope of the GLF, which is marginally consistent with the EGRET data but inconsistent with XLF data. Therefore, unresolved AGNs cannot be the dominant source of the EGRB, unless there is a new population of gamma-ray emitting AGNs that evolves differently from the XLF of AGNs. Predictions for the GLAST mission are made, and we find that the best-fit LDDE model predicts about 3000 blazars in the entire sky, which is considerably fewer (by a factor of more than 3) than a previous estimate.     

Formation of hard very high energy gamma-ray spectra of blazars due to internal photon–photon absorption

The energy spectra of TeV gamma-rays from blazars, after being corrected for intergalatic absorption in the extragalactic background light (EBL), appear unusually hard, a fact that poses challenges to the conventional models of particle acceleration in TeV blazars and/or to the EBL models. In this paper, we show that the internal absorption of gamma-rays caused by interactions with dense narrow-band radiation fields in the vicinity of compact gamma-ray production regions can lead to the formation of gamma-ray spectra of an almost arbitrary hardness. This allows significant relaxation of the current tight constraints on particle acceleration and radiation models, although at the expense of enhanced requirements to the available non-thermal energy budget. The latter, however, is not a critical issue, as long as it can be largely compensated by the Doppler boosting, assuming large (>10) Doppler factors of the relativistically moving gamma-ray production regions. The suggested scenario of formation of hard gamma-ray spectra predicts detectable synchrotron radiation of secondary electron–positron pairs which might require a revision of the current 'standard paradigm' of spectral energy distributions of gamma-ray blazars. If the primary gamma-rays are of hadronic origin related to pp or   p γ  interactions, the 'internal gamma-ray absorption' model predicts neutrino fluxes close to the detection threshold of the next generation high-energy neutrino detectors.