Observation of Strong Variability in the X-Ray Emission from Markarian 421 Correlated with the May 1996 TeV Flare

Abstract

We observed the BL Lac object Markarian 421 with the X-ray satellite RXTE and the Whipple Air Cerenkov Telescope during a two week correlated X-ray/gamma-ray campaign in May 1996. Two dramatic outbursts with extremely rapid and strong flux variations were observed at TeV energies during this period. The X-ray emission in the 2-10 keV band was highly variable and reached a peak flux of $5.6\times 10^{-10}$ erg cm${}^{-2}$ s${}^{-1}$, a historic high. Similar behavior was observed for the TeV emission. In contrast to earlier near-simultaneous X-ray/gamma-ray observations of Mrk 421, the variability amplitude is much larger at TeV than at X-ray energies. This behavior is expected in Synchrotron Self-Compton models.

arXiv comment5 pages, 2 figures, LaTEX, to appear in proceedings of the 4th Compton Symposium (Williamsburg, VA), 1997

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