Four Years Monitoring of Blazar PKS 2155-304 with BeppoSAX: Probing the Dynamics of the Jet

Abstract

PKS 2155--304 is one of the brightest blazars in the X-ray band. It was repeatedly monitored with BeppoSax during three long campaigns of about 2 days each in November of 1996, 1997 and 1999. The source underwent different states of intensity and was clearly variable with successive flares detected. This paper presents temporal and spectral analysis to study the X-ray variability trends for a blazar. The rich phenomenology is interpreted in the context of a model where relativistic electrons are accelerated through internal shocks taking place in the jets. The most important parameter turns out to be the initial time interval between the two shells ejected from the central engine to produce the flare, which may determine the structure of the shock and in turn the physical quantities of the emitting region to reproduce the observed trends of the X-ray variability (abridged).

arXiv comment51 pages, 11 figures, ApJ in press, Scheduled for the v572 no2, June 20, 2002 issue

References in corpus (29)

• Spectra and Light Curves of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows
• A Unifying View of the Spectral Energy Distributions of Blazars
• A theoretical unifying scheme for gamma-ray bright blazars
• On Uncertainties in Cross-Correlation Lags and the Reality of Wavelength-Dependent Continuum Lags in Active Galactic Nuclei
• RXTE Observation of Cygnus X-1: II. Timing Analysis
• Constraints on the Physical Parameters of TeV Blazars
• Internal shocks in the jets of radio-loud quasars
• BeppoSAX Observations of Unprecedented Synchrotron Activity in the BL Lac Object Mkn 501
• Rapid variability in the synchrotron self Compton model for blazars
• On X-ray Variability in Seyfert Galaxies
• VHE Gamma Rays from PKS 2155-304
• Complex Spectral Variability from Intensive Multi-wavelength Monitoring of Mrk421 in 1998
• Characteristic X-ray Variability of TeV Blazars: Probing the Link between the Jet and the Central Engine
• Variability Pattern and the Spectral Evolution of the BL Lacertae Object PKS 2155-304
• Multiwavelength Monitoring of the BL Lacertae Object PKS 2155-304 in May 1994. III. Probing the Inner Jet through Multiwavelength Correlations
• X-ray Emission of Mkn 421: New Clues From Its Spectral Evolution. II. Spectral Analysis and Physical Constraints
• Energetics of Tev Blazars and Physical Constraints on their Emission Regions
• Modeling the production of flares in $\gamma$-ray quasars
• Rapid X-ray Variability of the BL Lacertae Object PKS 2155-304
• Variability Time Scales of TeV Blazars Observed in the ASCA Continuous Long-Look X-ray Monitoring
• X-ray Emission of Mkn 421: New Clues From Its Spectral Evolution. I. Temporal Analysis
• Spectral Evolution of PKS 2155-304 observed with BeppoSAX during an Active Gamma-ray Phase
• Electron Acceleration and Time Variability of High Energy Emission from Blazars
• Temporal characteristics of the X-ray emission of NGC 7469
• High Temporal Resolution XMM Monitoring of PKS 2155-304
• Electron Acceleration and Synchrotron Radiation in Decelerating Plasmoids
• Multiwavelength Monitoring of the BL Lacertae Object PKS 2155-304 in May 1994. II. The IUE Campaign
• Radiative Hydromagnetic Shocks in Relativistic Outflow Sources
• Four Years of Extreme Ultraviolet Observations of Markarian 421: II. Temporal Analysis

Cited by in corpus (76)

• Modeling the Emission Processes in Blazars
• Synchrotron Self-Compton Analysis of TeV X-ray Selected BL Lacertae Objects
• Photopolarimetric Monitoring of Blazars in the Optical and Near-Infrared Bands with the Kanata Telescope. I. Correlations between Flux, Color, and Polarization
• On the use of structure functions to study blazar variability: caveats and problems
• Simultaneous multiwavelength observations of the second exceptional gamma-ray flare of PKS 2155-304 in July 2006
• The Parsec-Scale Structure and Jet Motions of the TeV Blazars 1ES 1959+650, PKS 2155-304, and 1ES 2344+514
• Timing Signatures of the Internal-Shock Model for Blazars
• Multi-wavelength observations of PKS 2155-304 with H.E.S.S
• On the Spectral Lags of the Short Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Leptonic and Hadronic Radiative Processes in Supermassive-Black-Hole Jets
• Detection of Intra-day Variability Timescales of Four High Energy Peaked Blazars with XMM-Newton
• Optical Polarization and Spectral Variability in the M87 Jet
• Optical Monitoring of BL Lacertae Object S5 0716+714 with a Novel Multi-Peak Interference Filter
• Observing Mkn 421 with XMM--Newton: the EPIC--PN point of view
• A multiwavelength view of the flaring state of PKS 2155-304 in 2006
• Multi-band optical micro-variability observations of BL Lacertae
• XMM-Newton View of PKS 2155-304: Characterizing the X-ray Variability Properties with EPIC-PN
• Probing the Disk-jet Connection of the Radio Galaxy 3C120 Observed with Suzaku
• X-ray Intraday Variability of Five TeV Blazars with NuSTAR
• Ensemble X-ray variability of Active Galactic Nuclei from serendipitous source catalogues
• Fourier Analysis of Blazar Variability
• X-ray/UV/Optical follow-up of the blazar PKS 2155-304 after the giant TeV flares of July 2006
• XMM-Newton view of PKS 2155-304: hardness ratio and cross-correlation analysis of EPIC pn observations
• Cross-spectral analysis of the X-ray variability of Mrk 421
• The Great Markarian 421 Flare of February 2010: Multiwavelength variability and correlation studies
• Simultaneous B'V'R' Monitoring of BL Lacertae Object S5~0716+714 and Detection of Inter-Band Time Delay
• Implications of Variability Patterns observed in TeV Blazars on the Structure of the Inner Jet
• Radio/X-ray Offsets of Large Scale Jets Caused by Synchrotron Time Lags
• X-ray flux variability of active galactic nuclei observed using NuSTAR
• Multi-wavelength variability study of the classical BL Lac object PKS 0735+178 on timescales ranging from decades to minutes
• Disentangling the synchrotron and Inverse Compton variability in the X-ray emission of the intermediate BL Lac object S5 0716+71
• XMM-Newton observations of the TeV BL Lac object PKS 2155--304 in 2006: signature of inverse Compton X-ray emission?
• The origins of the gamma-ray flux variations of NGC 1275 based on 8 years of Fermi-LAT observations
• X-ray spectral studies of TeV gamma-ray emitting blazars
• Long-term monitoring of PKS 2155$-$304 with ATOM and H.E.S.S.: investigation of optical/$\gamma$-ray correlations in different spectral states
• Multiwavelength variability study and search for periodicity of PKS 1510-089
• Time-Dependent Electron Acceleration in Blazar Transients: X-Ray Time Lags and Spectral Formation
• X-ray Intra-day Variability of the TeV Blazar Mrk 421 with Suzaku
• Peak of spectral energy distribution play an important role in intra-day variability of Blazars?
• Fourier Analysis of Blazar Variability: Klein-Nishina Effects and the Jet Scattering Environment
• Wide band X-ray and optical observations of the BL Lac object 1ES 1959+650 in high state
• A view of PKS 2155-304 with XMM-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometers
• X-ray Intraday Variability of the TeV Blazar PKS 2155-304 with Suzaku During 2005-2014
• Multiwavelength Observations of the BL Lacertae Object PKS 2155-304 with XMM-Newton
• X-ray and gamma-ray variability of Mrk 421
• X-ray Intraday Variability of the TeV Blazar Mrk 421 with {\it Chandra}
• Multi-band Variability of the TeV Blazar PG 1553+113 with XMM-Newton
• Flux and spectral variability of the blazar PKS 2155-304 with XMM-Newton: Evidence of Particle Acceleration and Synchrotron Cooling
• Evolution of the synchrotron and inverse Compton emissions of the low energy peaked BL Lac object S5 0716+714
• Simultaneous optical monitoring of BL Lacertae object S5 0716+714 with high temporal resolution
• Systematic investigation of X-ray spectral variability of TeV blazars during flares in the $RXTE$ era
• CANGAROO-III Observations of the 2006 Outburst of PKS2155-304
• Extremely rapid x-ray flares of tev blazars in the rxte era
• The longest timescale X-ray variability reveals an evidence for active galactic nuclei in the high accretion state
• X-ray Intraday Variability of HBL Blazars with XMM-Newton
• X-ray intraday variability of the TeV blazar Mrk 421 with {\it XMM-Newton}
• The Effects of Periodically Gapped Time Series on Cross-correlation Lag Determinations
• Rapid X-ray Variability in Mkn 421 during a Multiwavelength Campaign
• A time-dependent particle acceleration and emission model: Understanding the particle spectral evolution and blazar flares
• Dependence of Temporal Properties on Energy in Long-Lag, Wide-Pulse Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Optical flux and spectral variability of BL Lacertae during its historical high outburst in 2020
• X-ray Intraday Variability and Power Spectral Density Profiles of the Blazar 3C 273 with XMM-Newton during 2000-2021
• First detection of VHE gamma-ray emission from TXS~1515--273, study of its X-ray variability and spectral energy distribution
• X-ray Studies of Blazar 1ES 1959+650 Using SWIFT & XMM-NEWTON Satellite
• Correlated Short-Timescale Hard-Soft X-ray Variability of the Blazars Mrk 421 and 1ES 1959+650 using $\text{AstroSat}$
• Photopolarimetric monitoring of 41 blazars in the optical and near-infrared bands with the Kanata telescope
• Insights from the first flaring activity of a high-synchrotron-peaked blazar with X-ray polarization and VHE gamma rays
• Time-Dependent Modeling of the Sub-Hour Spectral Evolution During the 2013 Outburst of Mrk 421
• An emergence of new polarized emission region in blazar Mrk 421 associated with X-ray flare
• NuSTAR View of TeV Blazar Mrk 501
• Scalings of the synchrotron cut-off and turbulent correlation of active galactic nucleus jets
• A Concept of Assessment of LIV Tests with THESEUS Using the Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by Fermi/GBM
• De-Biasing Structure Function Estimates From Sparse Time Series of the Solar Wind: A Data-Driven Approach
• Future Detections of the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium using Bright Power Law Sources with NewAthena
• 20 years of monitoring: PKS 2155-304 and PKS 1510-089 in the eyes of Swift and Fermi. I. The case of PKS 2155-304
• X-ray Flux and Spectral Variability of the TeV Blazars Mrk 421 and PKS 2155-304