Variability studies and modeling of the blazar PKS 2155-304 in the light of a decade of multi-wavelength observations

Abstract

The variability of the high-frequency peaked BL Lac object PKS 2155-304 is studied using almost 10 years of optical, X-ray and gamma-rays data. Publicly available data have been gathered and analyzed with the aim to characterize the variability and to search for log-normality or periodic behavior. The optical and X-ray range follow a log-normal process; a hint for a periodicity of about 700 days is found in optical and in the high energy (100 MeV <E<300 GeV) range. A one zone, time-dependent, synchrotron self-Compton model is successfully used to reproduce the evolution with energy of the variability and the tentatively reported periodicity.

12 pages, 9 figures

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• X-ray Intraday Variability of the TeV Blazar PKS 2155-304 with Suzaku During 2005-2014
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• Simultaneous observations of the blazar PKS2155-304 from Ultra-Violet to TeV energies
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• A numerical study of long-term multi-wavelength blazar variability
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• X-ray Studies of Blazar 1ES 1959+650 Using SWIFT & XMM-NEWTON Satellite
• About 300 days optical quasi-periodic oscillations in the long-term light curves of the blazar PKS 2155-304
• The Hosts of X-ray Absorption Lines Toward AGNs
• Characterizing the Variable X-ray and UV-Optical Flux Behavior of Blazars