No Arabic abstract
In an optical monitoring program to characterize the variability properties of blazar, we observed 10 sources from the Roma-BZCAT catalogue for 26 nights in V and R bands during October 2014 to June 2015 with two telescopes located in India. The sample includes mainly newly discovered BL Lacs where the redshift of some sources are not known yet. We present the results of flux and color variations of the sample on intraday and short time scales obtained by using the power-enhanced F-test and the nested-ANOVA tests, along with their spectral behavior. We find significant intraday variability in the single FSRQ in our sample, having an amplitude of variation ~12%. Although a few of BL Lacs showed probable variation in some nights, none of them passes the variability tests at 99.9% significance level. We find that 78% of the sample showed significant negative colour--magnitude correlations i.e., a redder-when-brighter spectral evolution. Those which do not show strong or clear chromatism, predominantly exhibit a redder-when-brighter trends. Unlike on hourly timescales, the high synchrotron peaked (HSP) blazars in the sample (BZGJ0656+4237, BZGJ0152+0147 and BZBJ1728+5013) show strong flux variation on days to months timescales, where again we detect a decreasing trend of the spectral slope with brightness. We observe a global steepening of the optical spectrum with increasing flux on intranight timescale for the entire blazar sample. Non-variability in the BL Lacs in our sample could be resulted by distinct contribution from the disk as well as from other components in the studied energy range.
We present results of a variability study in the optical band of 44 newly identified blazar candidates behind the Magellanic Clouds. Our sample contains 27 flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and 17 BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs). However, only nine of them are considered as secure blazar candidates, while the classification of the remaining 35 objects is still uncertain. All studied blazar candidates possess infrequently sampled optical light curves (LCs) in I filter provided by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment group. The LCs were analysed with the Lomb-Scargle periodogram, the Hurst exponent $H$, and the $mathcal{A}-mathcal{T}$ plane, to look for blazar-like characteristic features and to study the long-term behaviour of the optical fluxes. The power law (PL) indices of the Lomb-Scargle power spectral density (PSD) of the FSRQ blazar candidates mostly lie in the range (1,2). In case of the BL Lacs they are located in the range (1,1.8). The PL PSD is indicative of a self-affine stochastic process characterised by $H$, underlying the observed variability. We find that the majority of analysed objects have $Hleq 0.5$, indicating short-term memory, whereas four BL Lacs and two FSRQs have $H>0.5$, implying long-term memory. 41 blazar candidates are located in the $mathcal{A}-mathcal{T}$ plane in the region available to PL plus Poisson noise processes. Interestingly, one FSRQ is located marginally below this region, while two FSRQs lie above the line $mathcal{T}=2/3$, i.e. they are even more noisy than white noise. The BL Lac candidates are characterised by higher $mathcal{A}$ values than FSRQs, i.e. $0.71pm 0.06$ and $0.29pm 0.05$, respectively.
We present an optical variability study of 44 newly identified blazar candidates behind the Magellanic Clouds, including 27 flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and 17 BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs). All objects in the sample possess high photometric accuracy and irregularly sampled optical light curves (LCs) in I filter from the long-term monitoring conducted by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment. We investigated the variability properties to look for blazar-like characteristics and to analyze the long-term behaviour. We analyzed the LCs with the Lomb-Scargle periodogram to construct power spectral densities (PSDs), found breaks for several objects, and linked them with accretion disk properties. In this way we constrained the black hole (BH) masses of 18 FSRQs to lie within the range $8.18leqlog (M_{rm BH}/M_odot)leq 10.84$, assuming a wide range of possible BH spins. By estimating the bolometric luminosities, we applied the fundamental plane of active galactic nuclei variability as an independent estimate, resulting in $8.4leqlog (M_{rm BH}/M_odot)leq 9.6$, with a mean error of 0.3. Many of the objects have very steep PSDs, with high frequency spectral index in the range $3-7$. An alternative attempt to classify the LCs was made using the Hurst exponent, $H$, and the $mathcal{A}-mathcal{T}$ plane. Two FSRQs and four BL Lacs yielded $H>0.5$, indicating presence of long-term memory in the underlying process governing the variability. Additionally, two FSRQs with exceptional PSDs, stand out also in the $mathcal{A}-mathcal{T}$ plane.
Extreme high-energy peaked BL Lac objects (EHBLs) are a new emerging class of blazars. The typical two-hump structured spectral energy distribution (SED) is shifted to higher energies with respect to other more established classes of blazars. Multi-wavelength observations allow us to constrain their synchrotron peak in the medium and hard X-ray bands. Their gamma-ray emission dominates above the GeV gamma-ray band, and in some objects it extends up to several TeV (e.g. 1ES 0229+200). Their hard TeV spectrum is also interesting for the implications on the extragalactic background light indirect measurements, the intergalactic magnetic field estimate, and the possible origin of extragalactic high-energy neutrinos. Up to now, only a few objects have been studied in the TeV gamma-ray range. In this contribution, we will present the new detection of the EHBL object PGC 2402248, recently discovered in TeV gamma rays with the MAGIC telescopes. The analysis results of a set of multi-wavelength simultaneous observations up to the VHE gamma-ray band provide the broad-band SED of the blazar, which will be used to probe different emission models. Given the extreme characteristics of this blazar, constraints on the physical parameters within the framework of leptonic and hadronic models are derived.
We present X-ray and radio observations of the new Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) G306.3-0.9, recently discovered by Swift. Chandra imaging reveals a complex morphology, dominated by a bright shock. The X-ray spectrum is broadly consistent with a young SNR in the Sedov phase, implying an age of 2500 yr for a distance of 8 kpc, plausibly identifying this as one of the 20 youngest Galactic SNRs. Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) imaging reveals a prominent ridge of radio emission that correlates with the X-ray emission. We find a flux density of ~ 160 mJy at 1 GHz, which is the lowest radio flux recorded for a Galactic SNR to date. The remnant is also detected at 24microns, indicating the presence of irradiated warm dust. The data reveal no compelling evidence for the presence of a compact stellar remnant.
With respect to the recent INTEGRAL/IBIS 9-year Galactic Hard X-ray Survey (Krivonos et al. 2012), we use archival Swift/XRT observations in conjunction with multi-wavelength information to discuss the counterparts of a sample of newly discovered objects. The X-ray telescope (XRT, 0.3-10 keV) on board Swift, thanks to its few arcseconds source location accuracy, has been proven to be a powerful tool with which the X-ray counterparts to these IBIS sources can be searched for and studied. In this work, we present the outcome of this analysis by discussing four objects (SWIFT J0958.0-4208, SWIFT J1508.6-4953, IGR J17157-5449, and IGR J22534+6243) having either X-ray data of sufficient quality to perform a reliable spectral analysis or having interesting multiwaveband properties. We find that SWIFT J1508.6-4953 is most likely a Blazar, while IGR J22534+6243 is probably a HMXB. The remaining two objects may be contaminated by nearby X-ray sources and their class can be inferred only by means of optical follow-up observations of all likely counterparts.