Distinguishing radiation mechanisms and particle populations in blazar jets through long-term multiband monitoring with RINGO3 and Fermi
: McCall, Callum; Jermak, Helen; Steele, Iain A.; Agudo, Ivan; Barres de Almeida, Ulisses; Hovatta, Talvikki; Lamb, Gavin P.; Lindfors, Elina; Mundell, Carole
Publisher: Oxford University Press
: OXFORD
: 2024
: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
: MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
: MON NOT R ASTRON SOC
: 532
: 2
: 2788
: 2819
: 32
: 0035-8711
: 1365-2966
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1693(external)
: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/532/2/2788/7710751(external)
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/457356711(external)
: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.12835(external)
We present the results of seven years of multicolour photometric monitoring of a sample of 31 γ-ray bright blazars using the RINGO3 polarimeter on the Liverpool Telescope from 2013-2020. We explore the relationships between simultaneous observations of flux in three optical wavebands along with Fermiγ-ray data in order to explore the radiation mechanisms and particle populations in blazar jets. We find significant correlations between optical and γ-ray flux with no detectable time lag, suggesting leptonic emission processes in the jets of these sources. Furthermore, we find the spectral behaviour against optical and γ-ray flux for many sources is best fit logarithmically. This is suggestive of a transition between bluer-/redder-when-brighter into stable-when-brighter behaviour during high activity states; a behaviour that might be missed in poorly sampled data, resulting in apparent linear relationships.
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IA acknowledges financial support from the grant CEX2021-001131-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC and from MICIN grants PID2019-107847RB-C44andPID2022-139117NB-C44. UBA acknowledges the receipt of a FAPERJ State Scientist Fellowship number E-26/200.532/2023 and a CNPq Productivity Fellowship number 309053/2022-6 TH was supported by the Research Council of Finland projects 317383, 320085, 322535, and 345899. GPL is supported by Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (grant numbers DHF-R1-221175 and DHFERE-221005).
