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.     

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.     

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.     

Photometric monitoring of 12 BL Lacertae objects

We present the results of our monitoring the flux variability of 12 BL Lac objects, which have variabilities on time-scales ranging from hours to months. Individual sources are discussed in detail. Three of them, OY091,     and     , show significant rapid variation (hours). Two of them, 3C 66A and Mrk 501, exhibit significant variability on time-scales of months. We find that 3C 66A has a variability period of     , supporting the 65-d period obtained by Lainela et al. The periodicity seems to be weak according to the Jurkevich     test. We also find a correlation between     colour index and B magnitude for Mrk 421. We discuss possible physical mechanisms on the basis of these observational phenomena.     

Search for hard lags with intra‐night optical observations of BL Lacertae

It is generally believed that the high energy end of synchrotron emission, generated by the most energetic tail of relativistic electrons in the jets, account for the X‐ray emission of high‐energy peaked BL Lac objects (HBLs) and the optical emission of intermediate‐energy peaked BL Lac objects (IBLs). It is thus expected that both should show similar variability characteristics. One of the important variability parameters is the inter‐band time lag which probes the acceleration and cooling of relativistic particles responsible for the emission. The switches between soft and hard lags have been detected in the intra‐day X‐ray variability of a few HBLs, which is not the case for the intra‐day optical variability of IBLs yet. We present the results of our intra‐night optical observations for BL Lacertae, aiming at searching for hard lags of its optical variations, performed with the 80 cm telescope in fourteen nights of 2010 September‐November. Intra‐night changes of ∼0.2 mag were detected in most of nights. The intra‐night variability amplitude tends to become larger from red to blue wavelength, and the optical spectrum hardens with increasing brightness. The intra‐night variations correlate between different wavebands, but we did not find significant time lags, either soft or hard. Nevertheless, on November 2, the B band variations showed a sign of lagging the R band ones by 317±214 s. The claim of this hard lag is strongly limited by the photometric precision and time resolution. Therefore, the switches between soft and hard lags of IBLs in the optical bands needs further demonstration with more higher quality observations. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Identification of newly discovered radio-emitting X-ray sources: results from spectroscopy

We present optical identifications for a sample of 20 previously unknown X-ray/radio sources that are present both in the source catalogue of ROSAT PSPC pointed observations ( ROSAT SRC) and in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). The optical spectroscopy was carried out with the 2.1-m telescope at San Pedro Martir (Mexico) during 1995 April and September. We have identified 15 active galactic nuclei [including 12 broad-emission-line (FWHM >1000 km s⁻¹) objects, one bona fide BL Lac, one BL Lac candidate and one narrow-line (FWHM < 1000 km s⁻¹) radio galaxy] and five radio galaxies. We derive the X-ray fluxes and luminosities by analysing the PSPC exposures, and show the radio morphology from the NVSS maps.  We find that the correlation between the monochromatic X-ray luminosity at 2 keV and the core radio luminosity at 5 GHz for the radio galaxies in our sample follows that found for the 3CR radio galaxies, suggesting a possible nuclear origin for the X-ray emission in these sources. This correlation is weaker in the case of broad-line objects, indicating the presence of another (unbeamed) mechanism for the X-ray emission only weakly related to the radio emission.     

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.     

Jet and accretion power in the most powerful Fermi blazars

Among the blazars detected by the Fermi satellite, we have selected the 23 blazars that in the 3 months of survey had an average γ-ray luminosity above 10⁴⁸ erg s⁻¹. For 17 out of the 23 sources we found and analysed X-ray and optical–ultraviolet data taken by the Swift satellite. With these data, implemented by archival and not simultaneous data, we construct the spectral energy distributions, and interpreted them with a simple one-zone, leptonic, synchrotron and inverse Compton model. When possible, we also compare different high-energy states of single sources, like 0528+134 and 3C 454.3, for which multiple good sets of multiwavelength data are available. In our powerful blazars the high energy emission always dominates the electromagnetic output, and the relatively low level of the synchrotron radiation often does not hide the accretion disc emission. We can then constrain the black hole mass and the disc luminosity. Both are large (i.e. masses equal or greater than  10⁹ M _⊙  and disc luminosities above 10 per cent of Eddington). By modelling the non-thermal continuum we derive the power that the jet carries in the form of bulk motion of particles and fields. On average, the jet power is found to be slightly larger than the disc luminosity, and proportional to the mass accretion rate.     

The CLASS blazar survey – II. Optical properties

This paper presents the optical properties of the objects selected in the CLASS blazar survey. Because an optical spectrum is now available for 70 per cent of the 325 sources present in the sample, a spectral classification, based on the appearance of the emission/absorption lines, is possible. A wide variety of optical spectral types is found. Besides 'classical' BL Lacs (42), BL Lac candidates (5) and high-power     flat spectrum radio quasars (67), a significant number of 'passive' elliptical galaxies (41) is also found. Moreover, 33 broad emission line objects with a low radio power     are discovered, suggesting that at least a fraction (∼     per cent) of low-power blazars have a broad line region. Finally, 34 objects showing only narrow emission lines, either as a result of some starburst activity in the host galaxy or as a result of the presence of an active galactic nucleus, appear in the sample.