Systematic investigation of X-ray spectral variability of TeV blazars during flares in the $RXTE$ era

TL;DR

This study systematically analyzes 16 years of RXTE X-ray data from 32 TeV blazars, revealing spectral variability patterns during flares, correlations among spectral parameters, and implications for blazar emission models.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis of spectral variability in TeV blazars during flares using long-term RXTE data, including empirical relations to estimate electron spectral index.

Findings

Both spectral index and electron spectral index tend to harden when brighter.

Electron spectral index varies during flares, affecting spectral variability interpretation.

Empirical relations enable estimation of electron spectral index from observable spectral parameters.

Abstract

Utilizing all the 16-year $RXTE$ observations, we analyze the X-ray spectra of 32 TeV blazars, and perform a systematic investigation of X-ray spectral variability for the 5 brightest sources during their major flares that lasted several days. We obtain photon spectral index ($\alpha$), flux and synchrotron radiation peak energy ($E_{\rm{p}}$) from empirical spectral fitting, and electron spectral index ($p$) from theoretical synchrotron radiation modeling. We find that both $\alpha$ and $p$ generally display a harder-when-brighter trend, confirming the results of many previous works. Furthermore, we confirm and strengthen the result that $p$ must vary in order to explain the observed X-ray spectral variability during flares, which would have useful implications for interpreting the associated higher-energy spectral variability. We see apparent electron spectral hysteresis in many but not all $p$-flux plots that takes a form of "loop" or oblique"8". We obtain a tight $p$-hardness ratio (HR) relation and a tighter $p$-$\alpha$ relation using spectra of flaring periods, both of which are also applicable to stacked data of quiescent periods. We demonstrate that these two empirical relations can be used efficiently to estimate $p$ from HR or $\alpha$ that is readily achieved. Finally, we find that, when considering TeV blazars as a whole, $\alpha$ and X-ray luminosity are positively correlated, $E_{\rm{p}}$ is negatively correlated with $p$ and $\alpha$, and $E_{\rm{p}}$ is positively correlated with HR; all these correlations are in line with the blazar sequence. However, after correcting for the Doppler boosting effect, $\alpha$ and intrinsic X-ray luminosity follow an anti-correlation.