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Register a new userNuSTAR, Swift, and GROND observations of the flaring MeV blazar: PMN J0641$-$0320
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MeV blazars are a sub--population of the blazar family, exhibiting larger--than--average jet powers, accretion luminosities and black hole masses. Because of their extremely hard X--ray continua, these objects are best studied in the X-ray domain. Here, we report on the discovery by the $Fermi$ Large Area Telescope and subsequent follow-up observations with $NuSTAR$, $Swift$ and GROND of a new member of the MeV blazar family: PMN J0641$-$0320. Our optical spectroscopy provides confirmation that this is a flat--spectrum radio quasar located at a redshift of $z=1.196$. Its very hard $NuSTAR$ spectrum (power--law photon index of $sim$1 up to $sim$80 keV) indicates that the emission is produced via inverse Compton scattering off photons coming from outside the jet.The overall spectral energy distribution of PMN J0641$-$0320 is typical of powerful blazars and by reproducing it with a simple one-zone leptonic emission model we find the emission region to be located either inside the broad line region or within the dusty torus.
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During a period of strong $gamma$-ray flaring activity from BL Lacertae, we organized Swift, NICER, and NuSTAR follow-up observations. The source has been monitored by Swift-XRT between 2020 August 11 and October 16, showing a variability amplitude of 65, with a flux varying between 1.0 $times$ 10$^{-11}$ and 65.3 $times$ 10$^{-11}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. On 2020 October 6, Swift-XRT has observed the source during its historical maximum X-ray flux. A softer-when-brighter behaviour has been observed by XRT, suggesting an increasing importance of the synchrotron emission in the X-ray part of the spectrum covered by XRT during this bright state. Rapid variability in soft X-rays has been observed with both the Swift-XRT and NICER observations with a minimum variability time-scale of 60 s and 240 s, and a doubling time-scale of 274 s and 1008 s, respectively, suggesting very compact emitting regions (1.1 $times$ 10$^{14}$ cm and 4.0 $times$ 10$^{14}$ cm). At hard X-rays, a minimum variability time-scale of $sim$ 5.5 ks has been observed by NuSTAR. We report the first simultaneous NICER and NuSTAR observations of BL Lacertae during 2020 October 11-12. The joint NICER and NuSTAR spectra are well fitted by a broken power-law with a significant difference of the photon index below (2.10) and above (1.60) an energy break at $sim$ 2.7 keV, indicating the presence of two different emission components (i.e, synchrotron and inverse Compton) in the broad band X-ray spectrum. Leaving the total hydrogen column density toward BL Lacertae free to vary, a value of N$_{H,tot}$ = (2.58 $pm$ 0.09) $times$ 10$^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$ has been estimated.
We report the results of a multi-band observing campaign on the famous blazar 3C 279 conducted during a phase of increased activity from 2013 December to 2014 April, including first observations of it with NuSTAR. The $gamma$-ray emission of the source measured by Fermi-LAT showed multiple distinct flares reaching the highest flux level measured in this object since the beginning of the Fermi mission, with $F(E > 100,{rm MeV})$ of $10^{-5}$ photons cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$, and with a flux doubling time scale as short as 2 hours. The $gamma$-ray spectrum during one of the flares was very hard, with an index of $Gamma_gamma = 1.7 pm 0.1$, which is rarely seen in flat spectrum radio quasars. The lack of concurrent optical variability implies a very high Compton dominance parameter $L_gamma/L_{rm syn} > 300$. Two 1-day NuSTAR observations with accompanying Swift pointings were separated by 2 weeks, probing different levels of source activity. While the 0.5$-$70 keV X-ray spectrum obtained during the first pointing, and fitted jointly with Swift-XRT is well-described by a simple power law, the second joint observation showed an unusual spectral structure: the spectrum softens by $DeltaGamma_{rm X} simeq 0.4$ at $sim$4 keV. Modeling the broad-band SED during this flare with the standard synchrotron plus inverse Compton model requires: (1) the location of the $gamma$-ray emitting region is comparable with the broad line region radius, (2) a very hard electron energy distribution index $p simeq 1$, (3) total jet power significantly exceeding the accretion disk luminosity $L_{rm j}/L_{rm d} gtrsim 10$, and (4) extremely low jet magnetization with $L_{rm B}/L_{rm j} lesssim 10^{-4}$. We also find that single-zone models that match the observed $gamma$-ray and optical spectra cannot satisfactorily explain the production of X-ray emission.
We present results from a deep spectral analysis of all the Swift observations of Mrk 421 from April 2006 to July 2006, when it reached its largest X-ray flux recorded until 2006. The peak flux was about 85 milli-Crab in the 2.0-10.0 keV band, with the peak energy (Ep) of the spectral energy distribution (SED) laying often at energies larger than 10 keV. We performed spectral analysis of the Swift observations investigating the trends of the spectral parameters in terms of acceleration and energetic features phenomenologically linked to the SSC model parameters, predicting their effects in the gamma-ray band, in particular the spectral shape expected in the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope-LAT band. We confirm that the X-ray spectrum is well described by a log-parabolic distribution close to Ep, with the peak flux of the SED (Sp) being correlated with Ep, and Ep anti-correlated with the curvature parameter (b). During the most energetic flares the UV-to-soft-X-ray spectral shape requires an electron distribution spectral index s about 2.3. Present analysis shows that the UV-to-X-ray emission from Mrk 421 is likely to be originated by a population of electrons that is actually curved, with a low energy power-law tail. The observed spectral curvature is consistent both with stochastic acceleration or energy dependent acceleration probability mechanisms, whereas the power-law slope form XRT-UVOT data is very close to that inferred from the GRBs X-ray afterglow and in agreement with the universal first-order relativistic shock acceleration models. This scenario hints that the magnetic turbulence may play a twofold role: spatial diffusion relevant to the first order process and momentum diffusion relevant to the second order process.
We report the Suzaku observations of the high luminosity blazar SWIFT J0746.3+2548 (J0746) conducted in November 2005. This object, with z = 2.979, is the highest redshift source observed in the Suzaku Guaranteed Time Observer (GTO) period, is likely to show high gamma-ray flux peaking in the MeV range. As a result of the good photon statistics and high signal-to-noise ratio spectrum, the $Suzaku$ observation clearly confirms that J0746 has an extremely hard spectrum in the energy range of 0.3-24 keV, which is well represented by a single power-law with a photon index of 1.17 and Galactic absorption. The multiwavelength spectral energy distribution of J0746 shows two continuum components, and is well modeled assuming that the high-energy spectral component results from Comptonization of the broad-line region photons. In this paper we search for the bulk Compton spectral features predicted to be produced in the soft X-ray band by scattering external optical/UV photons by cold electrons in a relativistic jet. We discuss and provide constraints on the pair content resulting from the apparent absence of such features.
Monitoring of the narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxy Markarian 335 (Mrk 335) with the Swift satellite discovered an X-ray flare beginning 2014 August 29. At the peak, the 0.5-5keV count rate had increased from that in the low flux state by a factor of 10. A target of opportunity observation was triggered with NuSTAR, catching the decline of the flare on 2014 September 20. We present a joint analysis of Swift and NuSTAR observations to understand the cause of this flare. The X-ray spectrum shows an increase in directly observed continuum flux and the softening of the continuum spectrum to a photon index of 2.49 (-0.07,+0.08) compared to the previous low flux observations. The X-ray spectrum remains well-described by the relativistically blurred reflection of the continuum from the accretion disc whose emissivity profile suggests that it is illuminated by a compact X-ray source, extending at most 5.2rg over the disc. A very low reflection fraction of 0.41 (-0.15,+0.15) is measured, unexpected for such a compact corona. The X-ray flare is, hence, interpreted as arising from the vertical collimation and ejection of the X-ray emitting corona at a mildly relativistic velocity, causing the continuum emission to be beamed away from the disc. As the flare subsides, the base of this jet-like structure collapses into a compact X-ray source that provides the majority of the radiation that illuminates the disc while continuum emission is still detected from energetic particles further out, maintaining the low reflection fraction.
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