Medium-band observation of the neutrino emitting blazar, TXS 0506+056

TL;DR

This study uses medium-band optical observations to analyze the spectral properties and variability of the neutrino-emitting blazar TXS 0506+056, constraining its classification and emission mechanisms.

Contribution

First medium-band optical observations of TXS 0506+056 provide detailed spectral analysis and variability constraints, improving understanding of its blazar nature and emission characteristics.

Findings

Peak synchrotron frequency at 10^14.28 Hz

TXS 0506+056 is consistent with the blazar sequence

No significant spectral variability detected during observation

Abstract

TXS 0506+056 is a blazar that has been recently identified as the counterpart of the neutrino event IceCube-170922A. Understanding blazar type of TXS 0506+056 is important to constrain the neutrino emission mechanism, but the blazar nature of TXS 0506+056 is still uncertain. As an attempt to understand the nature of TXS 0506+056, we report the medium-band observation results of TXS 0506+056, covering the wavelength range of 0.575 to 1.025 $\mu$m. The use of the medium-band filters allow us to examine if there were any significant changes in its spectral shapes over the course of one month and give a better constraint on the peak frequency of synchrotron radiation with quasi-simultaneous datasets. The peak frequency is found to be $10^{14.28}$ Hz, and our analysis shows that TXS 0506+056 is not an outlier from the blazar sequence. As a way to determine the blazar type, we also analyzed if TXS 0506+056 is bluer-when-brighter (BL Lac type and some flat spectrum radio quasars, FSRQs) or redder-when-brighter (found only in some FSRQs). Even though we detect no significant variability in the spectral shape larger than observational error during our medium-band observation period, the comparison with a dataset taken at 2012 shows a possible redder-when-brighter behavior of FSRQs. Our results demonstrate that medium-band observations with small to moderate-sized telescopes can be an effective way to trace the spectral evolution of transients such as TXS 0506+056.