ABSTRACT Blazars radiate from radio through gamma-ray frequencies and thereby make ideal targets for multifrequency studies. Such studies allow the properties of the emitting jet to be constrained. ...3C 279 is among the most notable blazars and therefore subject to extensive multifrequency campaigns. We report the results of a campaign ranging from near-IR to gamma-ray energies that targeted an outburst of 3C 279 in 2015 June. The campaign pivots around the detection in only 50 ks by INTEGRAL, whose IBIS/ISGRI data pin down the high-energy component of the spectral energy distribution (SED) between Swift-XRT data and Fermi-LAT data. The overall SED from near-IR to gamma rays can be well represented by either a leptonic or a lepto-hadronic radiation transfer model. Even though the data are equally well represented by the two models, their inferred parameters challenge the physical conditions in the jet. In fact, the leptonic model requires parameters with a magnetic field far below equipartition with the relativistic particle energy density. In contrast, equipartition may be achieved with the lepto-hadronic model, although this implies an extreme total jet power close to the Eddington luminosity.
ABSTRACT
Ever since the launch of the NuSTAR mission, the hard X-ray range is being covered to an unprecedented sensitivity. This range encodes the reflection features arising from active galactic ...nuclei (AGNs). Especially, the reflection of the primary radiation off the accretion disc carries the features of the manifestation of General Relativity described by the Kerr metric due to rotating supermassive black holes (SMBHs). We show the results of the broadband analyses of Mrk 876. The spectra exhibit the signature of a Compton hump at energies above 10 keV and a broadened and skewed excess at energies ∼6 keV. We establish this spectral excess to be statistically significant at 99.71 per cent (∼3σ) that is the post-trail probability through Monte Carlo simulations. Based on the spectral fit results and the significance of spectral features, the relativistic reflection model is favoured over the distant reflection scenario. The excess at ∼6 keV has a complex shape that we try to recover along with the Compton hump through a self-consistent X-ray reflection model. This allows inferring an upper limit to the black hole spin of a ≤ 0.85, while the inclination angle of the accretion disc results in i = 32.84$^{\circ }{}^{+12.22}_{-8.99}$, which is in agreement within the errors with a previous independent measurement (i = 15.4$^{\circ }{}^{+12.1}_{-6.8}$). While most spin measurements are biased towards high spin values, the black hole mass of Mrk 876 (2.4$\times 10^{8}\, \mbox{M}_\odot \le$ MSMBH $\le ~1.3 \times 10^{9}\, \mbox{M}_\odot$) lies in a range where moderately spinning SMBHs are expected. Moreover, the analyses of 12 Chandra observations reveal for the first time X-ray variability of Mrk 876 with an amplitude of 40 per cent.
ABSTRACT A prominent outburst of the flat spectrum radio quasar 3C 454.3 was observed in 2014 June with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. This outburst was characterized by a three-stage light-curve ...pattern-plateau, flare, and post-flare-that occurred from 2014 May to July, in a similar pattern as observed during the exceptional outburst in 2010 November. The highest flux of the outburst reported in this paper occurred during 2014 June 7-29, showing a multiple-peak structure in the light-curves. The average flux in these 22 days was found to be ph cm−2 s−1, with a spectral index, for a simple power law, of . That made this outburst the first γ-ray high state of 3C 454.3 ever to be detected by Fermi with such a hard spectrum over several days. The highest flux was recorded on 2014 June 15, in a 3 hr bin, at MJD 56823.5625, at a level of ph cm−2 s−1. The rise time of one of the short subflares was found to be s at MJD = 56827, when the flux increased from 4 to 12 × 10−6 ph cm−2 s−1. Several photons above 20 GeV were collected during this outburst, including one at 45 GeV on MJD 56827, constraining the γ-ray emission region to be located close to the outer boundary of the broad-line region, leading to fast flux variability.
The supermassive black holes at the center of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are surrounded by obscuring matter that can block nuclear radiation. Depending on the amount of blocked radiation, the flux ...from the AGN can be too faint to be detected by currently flying hard X-ray (above 15 keV) missions. At these energies only ~1% of the intensity of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB) can be resolved into point-like sources that are AGNs. In this work, we address the question of undetected sources contributing to the CXB with a very sensitive and new hard X-ray survey: the Swift-INTEGRAL X-ray survey, which is obtained with the new approach of combining the Swift/BAT and INTEGRAL/IBIS X-ray observations. We merge the observations of both missions, which enhances the exposure time and reduces systematic uncertainties. As a result, we obtain a new survey over a wide sky area of 6200 deg super(2) that is more sensitive than the surveys of Swift/BAT or INTEGRAL/IBIS alone. Our sample comprises 113 sources: 86 AGNs (Seyfert-like and blazars), 5 galaxies, 2 clusters of galaxies, 3 Galactic sources, 3 previously detected unidentified X-ray sources, and 14 unidentified sources. The scientific outcome from the study of the sample has been properly addressed to study the evolution of AGNs at redshift below 0.4. We do not find any evolution using the 1/V sub(max) method. Our sample of faint sources is a suitable target for the new generation hard X-ray telescopes with focusing techniques.
Deeply X-raying the high-energy sky Bottacini, Eugenio; Ajello, Marco
Journal of physics. Conference series,
05/2016, Letnik:
718, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
All-sky explorations by Fermi-LAT have revolutionized our view of the gamma-ray Universe. While its ongoing all-sky survey counts thousands of sources, essential issues related to the nature of ...unassociated sources call for more sensitive all-sky surveys at hard X-ray energies that allow for their identification. This latter energy band encodes the hard-tail of the thermal emission and the soft-tail of non-thermal emission thereby bridging the non-thermal and thermal emission mechanisms of gamma-ray sources. All-sky surveys at hard X-rays are best performed by current coded-mask telescopes Swift/BAT and INTEGRAL/IBIS. To boost the hard X-ray all-sky sensitivity, we have developed an ad hoc technique by combining photons from independent observations of BAT and IBIS. The resulting Swift-INTEGRAL X-ray (SIX) survey has an improved source-number density. This improvement is essential to enhance the positive hard X-ray - gamma-ray source matches. We present the results from the scientific link between the neighboring gamma-ray and hard X-ray bands in the context of galactic and extragalactic source classes of the second catalog Fermi Gamma-ray LAT (2FGL).
Abstract
We report on a timing and spectral analysis of a 50 ks NuSTAR observation of IGR J16320−4751 (= AX J1631.9−4752), a high-mass X-ray binary hosting a slowly rotating neutron star. In this ...observation from 2015, the spin period was 1308.8 ± 0.4 s giving a period derivative
P
̇
∼
2
×
10
−
8
s s
−1
when compared with the period measured in 2004. In addition, the pulsed fraction decreased as a function of energy, as opposed to the constant trend that was seen previously. This suggests a change in the accretion geometry of the system during the intervening 11 yr. The phase-averaged spectra were fit with the typical model for accreting pulsars: a power law with an exponential cutoff. This left positive residuals at 6.4 keV attributable to the known iron K
α
line, as well as negative residuals around 14 keV from a candidate cyclotron line detected at a significance of 5
σ
. We found no significant differences in the spectral parameters across the spin period, other than the expected changes in flux and component normalizations. A flare lasting around 5 ks was captured during the first half of the observation, where the X-ray emission hardened and the local column density decreased. Finally, the binary orbital period was refined to 8.9912 ± 0.0078 days thanks to Swift/BAT monitoring data from 2005–2022.
Current most sensitive surveys at soft X-ray (~ 0.5–10 keV) energies by Chandra and XMM-Newton preferably sample AGN at high-redshift (z > 0.5). At low-redshift (z < 0.5), where AGN are supposed to ...be in their evolution end-stage, these sources are very sparsely sampled. The low-redshift universe is best fathomed at hard X–ray energies (> 15 keV) by the INTEGRAL and the Swift missions with their coded-mask telescopes IBIS/ISGRI and BAT respectively. These instruments have two major advantages: 1) they have a huge field of view, hence allowing to sample a large number of AGN at low-redshift; 2) they operate at energies above 15 keV, hence allowing detecting photons with enough power to efficiently pierce even through the Compton-thick torus of AGN. Estimates based on observations with PDS on board the BeppoSAX satellite predict that Compton-thick AGN should dominate over unabsorbed AGN in the local universe playing an important role in reproducing the shape and intensity of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB). However coded-mask detectors suffer from heavy systematic effects preventing them from reaching their theoretical limiting sensitivity. We overcome this limit with a new and alternative approach, which has been designed ad hoc to improve the sensitivity of hard X–ray surveys by using IBIS/ISGRI and BAT. Both telescopes are so close in design that their observations can be combined to obtain a more sensitive survey. The observations are combined with resampling, merging, and cross-calibration techniques. We are able to sample limiting fluxes of the order of ~3.3 times 10−12 erg cm−2 s−1 in the 18–55 keV energy range. This is called the SIX survey, that stands for Swift-INTEGRAL X-ray survey. The SIX survey extends over a wide sky area of 6200 deg2 and it is used to obtain a persistent sample of faint AGN. The source number density (log N - log S) is a factor of 3 better than current parent surveys of BAT and IBIS/ISGRI alone. I will present a study of the evolution of AGN in the local universe discussing the X-ray luminosity function. The properties of the AGN circum-nuclear environment will be discussed checking the consistency with the AGN unification scheme. Also I will compare the results from the SIX survey to the results predicted for the NuSTAR survey. Finally preliminary results of the all-sky SIX survey are presented.
Ever since the launch of the NuSTAR mission, the hard X-ray range is being covered to an unprecedented sensitivity. This range encodes the reflection features arising from active galactic nuclei ...(AGN). Especially, the reflection of the primary radiation off the accretion disk carries the features of the manifestation of General Relativity described by the Kerr metric due to rotating supermassive black holes (SMBHs). We show the results of the broadband analyses of Mrk 876. The spectra exhibit the signature of a Compton hump at energies above 10 keV and a broadened and skewed excess at energies ~6 keV. We establish this spectral excess to be statistically significant at 99.71% (~3sigma) that is the post-trail probability through Monte Carlo simulations. Based on the spectral fit results and the significance of spectral features the relativistic reflection model is favored over the distant reflection scenario. The excess at ~6 keV has a complex shape that we try to recover along with the Compton hump through a self-consistent X-ray reflection model. This allows inferring an upper limit to the black hole spin of a<0.85, while the inclination angle of the accretion disk results in i=32.84 (+12.22\-8.99) degrees, which is in agreement within the errors with a previous independent measurement (i=15.4 (+12.1/-6.8) degrees). While most spin measurements are biased toward high spin values, the black hole mass of Mrk~876 (2.4x10^8 Msun < M < 1.3x10^9 Msun) lies in a range where moderately spinning SMBHs are expected. Moreover, the analyses of twelve Chandra observations reveal for the first time X-ray variability of Mrk876 with an amplitude of 40%.
A prominent outburst of the flat spectrum radio quasar 3C 454.3 was observed in 2014 June with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. This outburst was characterized by a three-stage light-curve ...pattern—plateau, flare, and post-flare—that occurred from 2014 May to July, in a similar pattern as observed during the exceptional outburst in 2010 November. The highest flux of the outburst reported in this paper occurred during 2014 June 7–29, showing a multiple-peak structure in the light-curves. The average flux in these 22 days was found to be FE>100 MeV=(7.2±0.2)×10{sup −6} ph cm{sup −2} s{sup −1}, with a spectral index, for a simple power law, of Γ=2.04±0.01. That made this outburst the first γ-ray high state of 3C 454.3 ever to be detected by Fermi with such a hard spectrum over several days. The highest flux was recorded on 2014 June 15, in a 3 hr bin, at MJD 56823.5625, at a level of FE>100 MeV=(17.6±1.9)×10{sup −6} ph cm{sup −2} s{sup −1}. The rise time of one of the short subflares was found to be T{sub r}=1200±700 s at MJD = 56827, when the flux increased from 4 to 12 × 10{sup −6} ph cm{sup −2} s{sup −1}. Several photons above 20 GeV were collected during this outburst, including one at 45 GeV on MJD 56827, constraining the γ-ray emission region to be located close to the outer boundary of the broad-line region, leading to fast flux variability.
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