• Login
    View Item 
    •   Maryland Shared Open Access Repository Home
    • ScholarWorks@UMBC
    • UMBC College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences
    • UMBC Physics Department
    • View Item
    •   Maryland Shared Open Access Repository Home
    • ScholarWorks@UMBC
    • UMBC College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences
    • UMBC Physics Department
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    The WEBT Campaign on the Blazar 3C 279 in 2006

    Thumbnail
    Files
    0708.2291.pdf (380.4Kb)
    Links to Files
    https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/522583
    Permanent Link
    https://doi.org/10.1086/522583
    http://hdl.handle.net/11603/19597
    Collections
    • UMBC Center for Space Sciences and Technology (CSST) / Center for Research and Exploration in Space Sciences & Technology II (CRSST II)
    • UMBC Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET)
    • UMBC Physics Department
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Author/Creator
    Mirabal, N.
    et al.
    Date
    2007-08-16
    Type of Work
    30 pages
    Text
    journal articles preprints
    Citation of Original Publication
    M. Böttcher et al., The WEBT Campaign on the Blazar 3C 279 in 2006, ApJ 670 968 (2007), doi: https://doi.org/10.1086/522583
    Rights
    This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
    © 2007. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved
    Abstract
    The quasar 3C 279 was the target of an extensive multiwavelength monitoring campaign from 2006 January through April. An optical-IR-radio monitoring campaign by the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) collaboration was organized around target-of-opportunity X-ray and soft γ-ray observations with Chandra and INTEGRAL in 2006 mid-January, with additional X-ray coverage by RXTE and Swift XRT. In this paper we focus on the results of the WEBT campaign. The source exhibited substantial variability of optical flux and spectral shape, with a characteristic timescale of a few days. The variability patterns throughout the optical BVRI bands were very closely correlated with each other, while there was no obvious correlation between the optical and radio variability. After the ToO trigger, the optical flux underwent a remarkably clean quasi-exponential decay by about 1 mag, with a decay timescale of τd ~ 12.8 days. In intriguing contrast to other (in particular, BL Lac type) blazars, we find a lag of shorter wavelength behind longer wavelength variability throughout the RVB wavelength ranges, with a time delay increasing with increasing frequency. Spectral hardening during flares appears delayed with respect to a rising optical flux. This, in combination with the very steep IR-optical continuum spectral index of α0 ~ 1.5-2.0, may indicate a highly oblique magnetic field configuration near the base of the jet, leading to inefficient particle acceleration and a very steep electron injection spectrum. An alternative explanation through a slow (timescale of several days) acceleration mechanism would require an unusually low magnetic field of B lesssim 0.2 G, about an order of magnitude lower than inferred from previous analyses of simultaneous SEDs of 3C 279 and other flat-spectrum radio quasars with similar properties.


    Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery
    University of Maryland, Baltimore County
    1000 Hilltop Circle
    Baltimore, MD 21250
    www.umbc.edu/scholarworks

    Contact information:
    Email: scholarworks-group@umbc.edu
    Phone: 410-455-3021


    If you wish to submit a copyright complaint or withdrawal request, please email mdsoar-help@umd.edu.

     

     

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Browse

    This CollectionBy Issue DateTitlesAuthorsSubjectsType

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics


    Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery
    University of Maryland, Baltimore County
    1000 Hilltop Circle
    Baltimore, MD 21250
    www.umbc.edu/scholarworks

    Contact information:
    Email: scholarworks-group@umbc.edu
    Phone: 410-455-3021


    If you wish to submit a copyright complaint or withdrawal request, please email mdsoar-help@umd.edu.