MAGIC and MWL monitoring of the blazar TXS 0506+056 in the 2018/2019 season

TL;DR

This paper reports on MAGIC and multiwavelength monitoring of the blazar TXS 0506+056 during 2017-2019, highlighting its gamma-ray emission states and potential as a neutrino source, aiding understanding of high-energy astrophysical phenomena.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed MWL spectral measurements of TXS 0506+056 during 2017-2019, including the lowest VHE gamma-ray state and a significant flaring episode.

Findings

Detected the lowest VHE gamma-ray emission state.

Observed a notable flaring episode in December 2018.

Confirmed the association between high-energy neutrinos and gamma-ray emission.

Abstract

The gamma-ray blazar TXS 0506+056, was discovered in VHE gamma-rays by the MAGIC telescopes in 2017 in a follow-up campaign of a high energy neutrino event IceCube-170922A (IC+Fermi+MAGIC++, Science 361, eaat1378 (2018)). Subsequent multivawelenght (MWL) observations and theoretical modeling in a frame of hadro-leptonic emission confirmed that this source could be a potential cosmic ray and neutrino emitter (MAGIC Collaboration, Ansoldi et al., (2018)). This is, by far, the most significant association between a high-energy neutrino and an astrophysical source emitting gamma rays and X-rays. TXS 0506+056 is a key object to help the astrophysics community to establish connections between high-energy neutrinos and astrophysical sources. Accurate and contemporaneous MWL spectral measurements are essential ingredients to achieve this goal. In the conference, we present the measurements from the MAGIC and MWL monitoring of this source, spanning the time period from November 2017 till February 2019. These include the lowest VHE gamma-ray emission state measured from this source so far as well as a flaring episode in December 2018.