No Arabic abstract
Between March 16, 1997 and April 14, 1997, a high flux level of TeV gamma-rays was observed from Mkn 501, using the HEGRA stereoscopic system of four imaging Cherenkov telescopes. The flux level varied during this period from about one half up to six times the flux observed from the Crab Nebula. Changes of the detection rate by a factor of up to 4 within 1 day have been observed. The measured differential energy spectrum of the radiation follows a power law from 1 TeV to 10 TeV. The differential spectral index of 2.47{+-}0.07{+-}0.25 is close to that of the Crab Nebula of 2.66{+-}0.12{+-}0.25.
Markarian 501 is only the second extragalactic source to be detected with high statistical certainty at TeV energies; it is similar in many ways to Markarian 421. The Whipple Observatory gamma-ray telescope has been used to observe the AGN Markarian 501 in 1996 and 1997, the years subsequent to its initial detection. The apparent variability on the one-day time-scale observed in TeV gamma rays in 1995 is confirmed and compared with the variability in Markarian 421. Observations at X-ray and optical wavelengths from 1997 are also presented.
Aims: We investigate the one-zone SSC model of TeV blazars in the presence of electron acceleration. In this picture electrons reach a maximum energy where acceleration saturates from a combination of synchrotron and inverse Compton scattering losses. Methods: We solve the spatially averaged kinetic equations which describe the simultaneous evolution of particles and photons, obtaining the multi-wavelength spectrum as a function of time. Results: We apply the model to the rapid flare of Mrk 501 of July 9, 2005 as this was observed by the MAGIC telescope and obtain the relevant parameters for the pre-flare quasi steady state and the ones during the flare. We show that a hard lag flare can be obtained with parameters which lie well within the range already accepted for this source. Especially the choice of a high value of the Doppler factor seems to be necessary.
We present the results of a multiwavelength campaign for Mrk 501 performed in March 1996 with ASCA, EGRET, Whipple, and optical telescopes. In the X-ray band, a spectral break was observed around 2 keV. We report here for the first time the detection of high-energy gamma-ray flux from Mrk 501 with EGRET with 3.5 sigma significance (E>100 MeV). Higher flux was also observed in April/May 1996, with 4.0 sigma significance for E>100 MeV, and 5.2 sigma significance for E>500 MeV. The gamma-ray spectrum was measured to be flatter than most of the gamma-ray blazars. We find that the multiband spectrum in 1996 is consistent with that calculated from a one-zone SSC model in a homogeneous region. In the context of this model, we investigate the values of the magnetic field strength and the beaming factor allowed by the observational results. We compare the March 1996 multiwavelength spectrum with that in the flare state in April 1997. Between these two epochs, the TeV flux increase is well correlated with that observed in keV range. The keV and TeV amplitudes during the April 1997 flare are accurately reproduced, assuming that the population of synchrotron photons in 1996 are scattered by the newly injected relativistic electrons, having maximum energies of G_max = 6.0e6. However, the TeV spectrum observed during March 1996 campaign is flatter than predicted by our models. We find that this cannot be explained by either higher order Comptonization or the contribution of the `seed IR photons from the host galaxy for the first-order external radiation Comptonization.
We report results based on the monitoring of the BL Lac object Mrk 501 in the optical (B, V and R) passbands from March to May 2000. Observations spread over 12 nights were carried out using 1.2 meter Mount Abu Telescope, India and 61 cm Telescope at Sobaeksan Astronomy Observatory, South Korea. The aim is to study the intra-day variability (IDV), short term variability and color variability in the low state of the source. We have detected flux variation of 0.05 mag in the R-band in time scale of 15 min in one night. In the B and V passbands, we have less data points and it is difficult to infer any IDVs. Short term flux variations are also observed in the V and R bands during the observing run. No significant variation in color (B$-$R) has been detected but (V$-$R) shows variation during the present observing run. Assuming the shortest observed time scale of variability (15 min) to represent the disk instability or pulsation at a distance of 5 Schwarschild radii from the black hole (BH), mass of the central BH is estimated $sim$ 1.20 $times$ 10$^{8} M_{odot}$.
The CANGAROO experiment has observed gamma-ray above 7TeV from the Crab pulsar/nebula at large zenith angle in Woomera, South Australia. We report the CANGAROO data taken in 1992, 1993 and 1995, from which it appears that the energy spectrum extends at least up to 50 TeV. The observed integral spectrum is (8.4+-1.0) x 10^{-13}(E/7 TeV)^(-1.53+-0.15)cm^{-2}s^{-1} between 7 TeV and 50 TeV. In November 1996, the 3.8m mirror was recoated in Australia, and its reflectivity was improved to be about 90% as twice as before. Due to this recoating, the threshold energy of ~4 TeV for gamma rays has been attained in the observation of the Crab at large zenith angle. Here we also report the preliminary result taken in 1996.