Distinguishing radiation mechanisms and particle populations in blazar jets through long-term multi-band monitoring with RINGO3 and Fermi

Abstract

We present the results of seven years of multicolour photometric monitoring of a sample of 31 $\gamma$-ray bright blazars using the RINGO3 polarimeter on the Liverpool Telescope from 2013--2020. We explore the relationships between simultaneous observations of flux in three optical wavebands along with Fermi $\gamma$-ray data in order to explore the radiation mechanisms and particle populations in blazar jets. We find significant correlations between optical and $\gamma$-ray flux with no detectable time lag, suggesting leptonic emission processes in the jets of these sources. Furthermore, we find the spectral behaviour against optical and $\gamma$-ray flux for many sources is best fit logarithmically. This is suggestive of a transition between bluer-/redder-when-brighter into stable-when-brighter behaviour during high activity states; a behaviour that might be missed in poorly sampled data, resulting in apparent linear relationships.

arXiv comment32 pages, 35 figures

References in corpus (34)

• Nine-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Parameter Results
• Unified Schemes for Radio-Loud Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Spectral Energy Distribution of Fermi bright blazars
• Leptonic and Hadronic Modeling of Fermi-Detected Blazars
• The Connection between X-ray- and Radio-Selected BL Lacertae Objects
• General physical properties of bright Fermi blazars
• TeV Gamma Rays from BL Lac Objects due to Synchrotron Radiation of Extremely High Energy Protons
• Doppler factors, Lorentz factors and viewing angles for quasars, BL Lacertae objects and radio galaxies
• The transition between BL Lac objects and Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars
• Multi-colour optical monitoring of eight red blazars
• TXS 0506+056, the first cosmic neutrino source, is not a BL Lac
• Photopolarimetric Monitoring of Blazars in the Optical and Near-Infrared Bands with the Kanata Telescope. I. Correlations between Flux, Color, and Polarization
• Timing Signatures of the Internal-Shock Model for Blazars
• The 3HSP catalogue of Extreme & High Synchrotron Peaked Blazars
• Connection between optical and gamma-ray variability in blazars
• Through The Ring Of Fire: $\gamma$-Ray Variability In Blazars By A Moving Plasmoid Passing A Local Source Of Seed Photons
• Temporal Correlations Between Optical and Gamma-ray Activity in Blazars
• Probing Blazar Emission Processes with Optical/Gamma-ray Flare Correlations
• Multi-wavelength observations of blazar AO 0235+164 in the 2008-2009 flaring state
• Multi-band optical variability of three TeV Blazars on Diverse Timescales
• Growing evidence for high-energy neutrinos originating in radio blazars
• An innovative blazar classification based on radio jet kinematics
• The RINGO2 and DIPOL Optical Polarisation Catalogue of Blazars
• Optical variability of PKS 0736+017
• The Nature of Transition Blazars
• Long-term optical-infrared color variability of blazars
• Optical/$\gamma$-ray blazar flare correlations: understanding the high-energy emission process using ASAS-SN and Fermi light curves
• The detection of the blazar S4 0954+65 at very-high-energy with the MAGIC telescopes during an exceptionally high optical state
• An extensive study of blazar broad emission line: Changing-look blazars and Baldwin effect
• Blazars at Very High Energies: Emission Modelling
• A statistical study of the optical spectral variability in gamma-ray blazars
• Optical polarization variations in the blazar PKS 1749+096
• The optical spectral features of 27 Fermi blazars
• Optical Spectral Variations of a Large Sample of Fermi Blazars

Cited by in corpus (2)

• The variability of blazars throughout the electromagnetic spectrum
• The polarisation behaviour of OJ 287 viewed through radio, millimetre and optical observations between 2015 and 2017