Disentangling the synchrotron and Inverse Compton variability in the X-ray emission of the intermediate BL Lac object S5 0716+71

Abstract

The possibility to detect simultaneously in the X-ray band the synchrotron and Inverse Compton (IC)emission of intermediate BL Lac objects offers the unique opportunity to study contemporaneously the low- and high-energy tails of the electron distribution in the jets of these sources. We attempted to disentangle the X-ray spectral variability properties of both the low- and high-energy ends of the synchrotron and Inverse Compton emission of the intermediate BL Lac object S5 0716+71. We carried out spectral, temporal and cross-correlation analyses of the data from a long XMM-Newton pointing of S5 0716+71 and we compared our findings with previous results from past X-ray observations. Strong variability was detected during the XMM exposure.Both the synchrotron and Inverse Compton components were found to vary on time scales of hours, implying a size of the emitting region of $R\la 0.7δ/(1+z)$ light-hours. The synchrotron emission was discovered to become dominant during episodes of flaring activity, following a harder-when-brighter trend. Tight correlations were observed between variations in different energy bands. Upper limits on time lags between the soft and hard X-ray light curves are of the order of a few hundred seconds.

14 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, A&A in press, minor corrections to match the version to be published

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• Simultaneous B'V'R' Monitoring of BL Lacertae Object S5~0716+714 and Detection of Inter-Band Time Delay
• Multi-band optical variability of the Blazar S5 0716+714 in outburst state during 2014-2015
• Multi-wavelength study of flaring activity in BL Lac object S5 0716+714 during 2015 outburst
• AGILE detection of variable gamma-ray activity from the blazar S5 0716+714 in September-October 2007
• XMM-Newton observations of the TeV BL Lac object PKS 2155--304 in 2006: signature of inverse Compton X-ray emission?
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• Peak of spectral energy distribution play an important role in intra-day variability of Blazars?
• First hard X-ray observations of the blazar S5 0716+714 with NuSTAR during a multiwavelength campaign
• Powerful high energy emission of the remarkable BL Lac object S5 0716+714
• Signature of Inverse Compton emission from blazars
• 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
• Extremely rapid x-ray flares of tev blazars in the rxte era
• X-ray timing and spectral variability properties of blazars S5 0716+714, OJ 287, Mrk 501, and RBS 2070
• X-ray intraday variability of the TeV blazar Mrk 421 with {\it XMM-Newton}
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• Swift/XRT view on S5 0716+714 during a flare
• A synchrotron self-Compton model with low energy electron cut-off for the blazar S5 0716+714