skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: A combined radio and GeV γ-ray view of the 2012 and 2013 flares of Mrk 421

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv220· OSTI ID:1355165
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [4]
  1. Aalto Univ. Metsahovi Radio Observatory, Kylmala (Finland); California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  2. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
  3. Univ. of Turku, Piikkio (Finland)
  4. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  5. Aalto Univ. Metsahovi Radio Observatory, Kylmala (Finland); Aalto Univ. (Finland). Dept. of Radio Science and Engineering
  6. Univ. Bordeaux, Gradignan (France); CNRS, IN2P3, CENBG, Gradignan (France)
  7. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, NM (United States)
  8. Aalto Univ. Metsahovi Radio Observatory, Kylmala (Finland)
+ Show Author Affiliations

In 2012 Markarian 421 underwent the largest flare ever observed in this blazar at radio frequencies. In the present study, we start exploring this unique event and compare it to a less extreme event in 2013. We use 15 GHz radio data obtained with the Owens Valley Radio Observatory 40-m telescope, 95 GHz millimetre data from the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy, and GeV γ-ray data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Here, the radio light curves during the flaring periods in 2012 and 2013 have very different appearances, in both shape and peak flux density. Assuming that the radio and γ-ray flares are physically connected, we attempt to model the most prominent sub-flares of the 2012 and 2013 activity periods by using the simplest possible theoretical framework. We first fit a one-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model to the less extreme 2013 flare and estimate parameters describing the emission region. We then model the major γ-ray and radio flares of 2012 using the same framework. The 2012 γ-ray flare shows two distinct spikes of similar amplitude, so we examine scenarios associating the radio flare with each spike in turn. In the first scenario, we cannot explain the sharp radio flare with a simple SSC model, but we can accommodate this by adding plausible time variations to the Doppler beaming factor. In the second scenario, a varying Doppler factor is not needed, but the SSC model parameters require fine-tuning. Both alternatives indicate that the sharp radio flare, if physically connected to the preceding γ-ray flares, can be reproduced only for a very specific choice of parameters.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1355165
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 448, Issue 4; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 38 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (52)

THE SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION OF FERMI BRIGHT BLAZARS journal May 2010
Simultaneous Multiwavelength Observations of Markarian 421 During Outburst journal August 2009
TeV AND MULTI-WAVELENGTH OBSERVATIONS OF Mrk 421 IN 2006-2008 journal August 2011
THE FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ON ORBIT: EVENT CLASSIFICATION, INSTRUMENT RESPONSE FUNCTIONS, AND CALIBRATION journal October 2012
Mrk 421 active state in 2008: the MAGIC view, simultaneous multi-wavelength observations and SSC model constrained journal June 2012
MAGIC observations and multifrequency properties of the flat spectrum radio quasar 3C 279 in 2011 journal July 2014
THE LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ON THE FERMI GAMMA-RAY SPACE TELESCOPE MISSION journal May 2009
A Multiwavelength View of the TeV Blazar Markarian 421: Correlated Variability, Flaring, and Spectral Evolution journal September 2005
LEPTONIC AND HADRONIC MODELING OF FERMI -DETECTED BLAZARS journal April 2013
Limits from rapid TeV variability of Mrk 421 journal January 1998
Time-dependent simulations of multiwavelength variability of the blazar Mrk 421 with a Monte Carlo multizone code: Time-dependent simulations of Mrk 421 journal August 2011
Self-consistent neutrino and UHE cosmic ray spectra from Mrk 421 journal February 2014
Gamma-ray-loud blazars and beaming journal April 1995
THE JUNE 2008 FLARE OF MARKARIAN 421 FROM OPTICAL TO TeV ENERGIES journal December 2008
Generating artificial light curves: revisited and updated journal June 2013
Multimodal nested sampling: an efficient and robust alternative to Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods for astronomical data analyses: Multimodal nested sampling journal January 2008
MultiNest: an efficient and robust Bayesian inference tool for cosmology and particle physics journal October 2009
Multiwavelength Observations of Markarian 421 in 2001 March: An Unprecedented View on the X‐Ray/TeV Correlated Variability journal April 2008
Detection of significant cm to sub-mm band radio and  -ray correlated variability in Fermi bright blazars journal May 2014
Decelerating Flows in TeV Blazars: A Resolution to the BL Lacertae-FR I Unification Problem journal August 2003
Structured jets in TeV BL Lac objects and radiogalaxies: Implications for the observed properties journal March 2005
Fast TeV variability in blazars: jets in a jet journal May 2009
Unveiling the X-ray/TeV engine in Mkn 421 journal November 2006
Multiwavelength Observations of Markarian 421 in 2005-2006 journal March 2009
Doppler factors, Lorentz factors and viewing angles for quasars, BL Lacertae objects and radio galaxies journal November 2008
The multifrequency variability of Mrk 421 journal October 2003
FIVE-YEAR WILKINSON MICROWAVE ANISOTROPY PROBE OBSERVATIONS: COSMOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION journal February 2009
Total Flux Density Variations in Extragalactic Radio Sources. III. Doppler Boosting Factors, Lorentz Factors, and Viewing Angles for Active Galactic Nuclei journal August 1999
Total Flux Density Variations in Extragalactic Radio Sources. II. Determining the Limiting Brightness Temperature for Synchrotron Sources journal January 1999
VLBA monitoring of Mrk 421 at 15 GHz and 24 GHz during 2011 journal September 2012
Mojave. x. Parsec-Scale jet Orientation Variations and Superluminal Motion in Active Galactic Nuclei journal October 2013
An adaptive-binning method for generating constant-uncertainty/constant-significance light curves with Fermi -LAT data journal July 2012
Simultaneous X-Ray and T[CLC]e[/CLC]V Observations of a Rapid Flare from Markarian 421 journal December 1999
Models for high-frequency radio outbursts in extragalactic sources, with application to the early 1983 millimeter-to-infrared flare of 3C 273 journal November 1985
The inner jet of an active galactic nucleus as revealed by a radio-to-γ-ray outburst journal April 2008
Probing the Inner jet of the Quasar pks 1510–089 with Multi-Waveband Monitoring During Strong Gamma-Ray Activity journal February 2010
Mrk 421 as a case study for TeV and X-ray variability in leptohadronic models journal July 2013
A method for the estimation of the significance of cross-correlations in unevenly sampled red-noise time series journal September 2014
Time correlation between the radio and gamma-ray activity in blazars and the production site of the gamma-ray emission journal September 2014
Evidence of internal rotation and a helical magnetic field in the jet of the quasar NRAO 150 journal June 2014
FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE SECOND SOURCE CATALOG journal March 2012
Time-dependent modelling of PKS 2155-304 in a low state journal November 2014
VSOP and Ground‐based VLBI Imaging of the TeV Blazar Markarian 421 at Multiple Epochs journal November 1999
THE JETS OF TeV BLAZARS AT HIGHER RESOLUTION: 43 GHz AND POLARIMETRIC VLBA OBSERVATIONS FROM 2005 TO 2009 journal October 2010
Detection of TeV photons from the active galaxy Markarian 421 journal August 1992
Radio to gamma-ray variability study of blazar S5 0716+714 journal March 2013
Equipartition brightness temperature and the inverse Compton catastrophe journal May 1994
Multiwavelength Observations of the Blazar Markarian 421 in 2002 December and 2003 January journal April 2006
BLAZARS IN THE FERMI ERA: THE OVRO 40 m TELESCOPE MONITORING PROGRAM journal May 2011
The Einstein Observatory Extended Medium-Sensitivity Survey. II - The optical identifications journal May 1991
Fifteen years monitoring of extragalactic radio sources at 22, 37 and 87 GHz journal November 1998
Nonthermal continuum radiation in three elliptical galaxies journal June 1975

Cited By (19)

Long-term multi-wavelength variability and correlation study of Markarian 421 from 2007 to 2009 journal September 2016
Resolving the High-Energy Universe with Strong Gravitational Lensing: the case of pks 1830–211 journal August 2015
Particle diffusion and localized acceleration in inhomogeneous AGN jets – II. Stochastic variation journal March 2016
The presence of interstellar scintillation in the 15 GHz interday variability of 1158 OVRO-monitored blazars journal September 2019
On the Connection of Radio and γ-Ray Emission in Blazars journal December 2018
X-Ray Flaring Activity of mrk 421 in the First half of 2013 journal October 2016
4.5 Years of Multi-Wavelength Observations of mrk 421 During the Argo-Ybj and Fermi Common Operation time journal January 2016
Swift Observations of Mrk 421 in Selected Epochs. II. An Extreme Spectral Flux Variability in 2009–2012 journal May 2018
3FHL: The Third Catalog of Hard Fermi -LAT Sources journal September 2017
Long-term Optical Polarization Variability and Multiwavelength Analysis of Blazar Mrk 421 journal August 2017
Particle diffusion and localized acceleration in inhomogeneous AGN jets – II. Stochastic variation text January 2016
3FHL: The Third Catalog of Hard Fermi -LAT Sources text January 2017
Long-term multi-wavelength variability and correlation study of Markarian 421 from 2007 to 2009 text January 2016
Resolving the High Energy Universe with Strong Gravitational Lensing: The Case of PKS 1830-211 text January 2015
Long-term multi-wavelength variability and correlation study of Markarian 421 from 2007 to 2009 text January 2016
3FHL: The Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources text January 2017
Long-term optical polarization variability and multiwavelength analysis of Blazar Mrk 421 text January 2017
The presence of interstellar scintillation in the 15 GHz interday variability of 1158 OVRO-monitored blazars text January 2019
Time-dependent neutrino emission from Mrk 421 during flares and predictions for IceCube text January 2016

Similar Records

Unprecedented study of the broadband emission of Mrk 421 during flaring activity in March 2010
Journal Article · Wed May 27 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Astronomy and Astrophysics · OSTI ID:1355165
+247 more
The violent hard X-ray variability of MRK 421 observed by NuSTAR in 2013 April
Journal Article · Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:1355165
+2 more
4.5 YEARS OF MULTI-WAVELENGTH OBSERVATIONS OF MRK 421 DURING THE ARGO-YBJ AND FERMI COMMON OPERATION TIME
Journal Article · Fri Jan 15 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series · OSTI ID:1355165
+18 more

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
galaxies: active
BL Lacertae objects: individual: Markarian 421
galaxies: jets