X-ray Intraday Variability of the TeV Blazar PKS 2155-304 with Suzaku During 2005-2014

Abstract

We have examined 13 pointed observations of the TeV emitting high synchrotron peak blazar PKS 2155-304, taken by the Suzaku satellite throughout its operational period. We found that the blazar showed large-amplitude intraday variabilities in the soft (0.8 - 1.5 keV) and the hard (1.5 - 8.0 keV) bands in the light curves. Spectral variability on intraday timescales is estimated using the hardness ratio. The blazar usually becomes harder when brighter and vice versa, following the typical behavior of high synchrotron peak blazars. The power spectral density (PSD) analyses of 11 out of 13 light curves in the total energy (0.8 - 8.0 keV) are found to be red-noise dominated, with power-law spectral indices that span a large range, from -2.81 to -0.88. Discrete correlation function analyses of all the 13 light curves between the soft and the hard bands show that they are well correlated and peak at, or very close to, zero lag. This indicates that the emissions in soft and hard bands are probably cospatial and emitted from the same population of leptons. Considering fluxes versus variability timescales, we found no correlation on intraday timescales, implying that X-ray emission from PKS 2155-304 is not dominated by simple changes in the Doppler factor. We briefly discuss the most likely emission mechanisms responsible for the observed flux and spectral variabilities and place constraints on magnetic field strength and Lorentz factors of the electrons emitting the X-rays in the most likely scenario.

18 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables; Accepted for publication in ApJ

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• The first hard X-ray spectral catalogue of Blazars observed by NuSTAR
• X-ray timing and spectral variability properties of blazars S5 0716+714, OJ 287, Mrk 501, and RBS 2070
• X-ray Intraday Variability of HBL Blazars with XMM-Newton
• X-ray intraday variability of the TeV blazar Mrk 421 with {\it XMM-Newton}
• Study of correlation between optical flux and polarization variations in BL Lac objects
• A numerical study of long-term multi-wavelength blazar variability
• X-ray Intraday Variability and Power Spectral Density Profiles of the Blazar 3C 273 with XMM-Newton during 2000-2021
• X-ray Studies of Blazar 1ES 1959+650 Using SWIFT & XMM-NEWTON Satellite
• Gamma-ray Blazar variability: New statistical methods of time-flux distributions
• X-ray Flux and Spectral Variability of the Blazar OJ 287 with Suzaku
• Superluminal Motion and Jet Parameters in the Gamma-ray-Emitting Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy TXS 1206+549
• About 300 days optical quasi-periodic oscillations in the long-term light curves of the blazar PKS 2155-304
• X-ray Fourier lag-frequency spectra modulated by stochastic turbulent acceleration in the jets of high-frequency-peaked BL Lac