2020ApJS..247...27K -
Astrophys. J., Suppl. Ser., 247, 27-27 (2020/March-0)
Swift observations of Mrk 421 in selected epochs. III. Extreme X-ray timing/spectral properties and multiwavelength lognormality during 2015 December-2018 April.
KAPANADZE B., GURCHUMELIA A., DORNER D., VERCELLONE S., ROMANO P., HUGHES P., ALLER M., ALLER H. and KHARSHILADZE O.
Abstract (from CDS):
We present the results from the timing and spectral study of Mrk 421 based mainly on the Swift data in the X-ray energy range obtained during the time interval 2015 December-2018 April. The most extreme X-ray flaring activity on long-term, daily, and intraday timescales was observed during the 2 month period that started in 2017 December, when the 0.3-10 keV flux exceeded a level of 5 x 10–9 erg cm–2 s–1, recorded only twice previously. While the TeV-band and X-ray variabilities were mostly correlated, the source often varied in a complex manner in the MeV-GeV and radio-UV energy ranges, indicating that the multifrequency emission of Mrk 421 could not always be generated in a single zone. The longer-term flares at X-rays and γ-rays showed a lognormal character, possibly indicating a variability imprint of the accretion disk onto the jet. A vast majority of the 0.3-10 keV spectra were consistent with the log-parabolic model, showing relatively low spectral curvature and correlations between the different spectral parameters, predicted in the case of the first- and second-order Fermi processes. The position of the synchrotron spectral energy distribution peak showed an extreme variability on diverse timescales between the energies Ep < 0.1 and >15 keV, with 15% of the spectra peaking at the hard X-ray, and was related to the peak height as Sp∝Ep^α^ with α ∼ 0.6, which is expected for the transition from Kraichnan-type turbulence into the "hard sphere" one. The 0.3-300 GeV spectra showed features of the hadronic contribution, jet-star interaction, and upscatter in the Klein-Nishina regime in different time intervals.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Journal keyword(s):
Active galactic nuclei - X-ray active galactic nuclei - Galaxy jets - Extragalactic astronomy
VizieR on-line data:
<Available at CDS (J/ApJS/247/27): table2.dat table4.dat table5.dat table6.dat table10.dat>
Simbad objects:
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