Multiwavelength intraday variability: what do the studies tell us about blazar jets?

TL;DR

This study investigates intraday variability in optical and X-ray bands of blazars, revealing rapid, low-amplitude fluctuations linked to jet instabilities and providing insights into electron energies and emission region sizes.

Contribution

It presents simultaneous optical and X-ray variability analysis of blazars, estimating electron energies, emission region sizes, and proposing magnetohydrodynamical instabilities as the variability origin.

Findings

Rapid variability observed in optical and X-ray bands.

Emission region sizes are smaller than black hole gravitational radii.

Low flux states show more rapid variability.

Abstract

In this presentation, we report the results of intraday variability in the optical (BVRI bands) and hard X-ray band (3-79 keV) in a number of blazars. In the optical microvariability studies of the blazars S5 0716+714 and BL Lac, we observed many interesting features such as rapid variability, large variability amplitude, presence of characteristic timescales, bluer-when-brighter achromatic behavior, and single power-law power spectral density. In {\it NuSTAR} observations of several blazars, using spectral and timing analysis, we found similar features consistent with the optical studies. In addition, in BL Lacs we estimated the Lorentz factor of the population of highest energy electrons emitting synchrotron emission, and whereas in flat-spectrum radio quasars, using external Compton models, we estimated the energy of the lower end of the injected electrons to be a few tens of Lorentz factors. In addition, we find that the low flux state exhibit more rapid variability in contrast to the previously reported results showing high flux states displaying rapid variability. In both the studies, the size of the emission regions estimated using variability timescales turn out to be an order magnitude smaller than the gravitational radius of a typical black-hole masses between $\sim 10^8-10^9$ solar masses, believed to be at the center of the radio-loud AGN. The results of the studies suggest that these low-amplitude rapid variability might originate as a result of magnetohydrodynamical instabilities near the base of the jets triggered by the processes modulated by the magnetic field at accretion disc.