Multi-frequency, multi-messenger astrophysics with Swift. The case of blazars
arXiv:1503.04863
Abstract
During its first 10 years of orbital operations Swift dedicated approximately 11% of its observing time to blazars, carrying out more than 12,000 observations of ~1,600 different objects, for a total exposure time of over 25 million seconds. In this paper I briefly discuss the impact that Swift is having on blazar multi-frequency and time-domain astrophysics, as well as how it is contributing to the opening of the era of multi-messenger astronomy. Finally, I present some preliminary results from a systematic analysis of a very large number of Swift XRT observations of blazars. All the "science ready" data products that are being generated by this project will be publicly released. Specifically, deconvolved X-ray spectra and best fit spectral parameters will be available through the ASDC "SED builder" tool (https://tools.asdc.asi.it/SED) and by means of interactive tables (http://www.asdc.asi.it/xrtspectra). Innovative data visualisation methods (see e.g. http://youtu.be/nAZYcXcUGW8) are also being developed at ASDC to better exploit this remarkable and rapidly growing data set.
arXiv comment8 pages 10 figures, revised manuscript for the Journal of High Energy Astrophysics for the dedicated issue: "Swift: Ten Years of Discovery"
References in corpus (15)
- Observation of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos in Three Years of IceCube Data
- Leptonic and Hadronic Modeling of Fermi-Detected Blazars
- TeV Gamma Rays from BL Lac Objects due to Synchrotron Radiation of Extremely High Energy Protons
- A Proton Synchrotron Blazar Model for Flaring in Markarian~501
- Correlation of the highest-energy cosmic rays with the positions of nearby active galactic nuclei
- Indications of Intermediate-Scale Anisotropy of Cosmic Rays with Energy Greater Than 57 EeV in the Northern Sky Measured with the Surface Detector of the Telescope Array Experiment
- A simplified view of blazars: clearing the fog around long-standing selection effects
- Swift observations of the very intense flaring activity of Mrk 421 during 2006: I. Phenomenological picture of electron acceleration and predictions for the MeV/GeV emission
- Simultaneous Planck, Swift, and Fermi observations of X-ray and gamma-ray selected blazars
- Searches for Anisotropies in the Arrival Directions of the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays Detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory
- Photohadronic origin of -ray BL Lac emission: implications for IceCube neutrinos
- Are both BL Lacs and pulsar wind nebulae the astrophysical counterparts of IceCube neutrino events?
- TANAMI Blazars in the IceCube PeV Neutrino Fields
- On Active Galactic Nuclei as Sources of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays
- Neutrino Oscillations and Blazars