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Mid-infrared variability of γ-ray emitting blazars




TekijätAyesha Anjum, C. S. Stalin, Suvendu Rakshit, Shivappa B. Gudennavar, Alok Durgapal

Julkaisuvuosi2020

JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Lehden akronyymiMNRAS

Artikkelin numero764A

Vuosikerta494

Numero1

Aloitussivu764

Lopetussivu774

Sivujen määrä11

ISSN0035-8711

eISSN1365-2966

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa771

Rinnakkaistallenteen osoitehttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/47629872


Tiivistelmä

Using data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, we studied the mid-infrared (mid-IR) 3.4 μm (W1-band) and 4.6 μm (W2-band) flux variability of γ-ray emitting blazars. Our sample consists of 460 flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and 575 BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects. On intraday time-scales, the median amplitude of variability (σm) for FSRQs is 0.04-0.02+0.03 and 0.05-0.02+0.03 mag in W1 and W2 bands. For BL Lacs, we found a median σm in W1(W2) bands of 0.04-0.02+0.01 (0.04-0.02+0.02 mag. On long time-scales, for FSRQs we found a median σm of 0.44-0.27+0.28 and 0.45-0.27+0.27 mag in W1 and W2 bands, while for BL Lacs, the median values are 0.21-0.12+0.18 and 0.22-0.11+0.18 mag in W1 and W2 bands. From statistical tests, we found FSRQs to show a larger σm than BL Lacs on both intraday and long time-scales. Among blazars, low synchrotron peaked sources showed larger σm compared to intermediate synchrotron peaked and high synchrotron peaked sources. The larger σm seen in FSRQs relative to BL Lacs on both intraday and long time-scales could be due to them having the most powerful relativistic jets and/or their mid-IR band coinciding with the peak of the electron energy distribution. BL Lacs have low power jets and the observational window to traces the emission from low-energy electrons, thereby leading to low σm. In both FSRQs and BL Lacs predominantly a bluer when brighter behaviour was observed. No correlation is found between σm and black hole mass.


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