Broadband study of OQ 334 during its flaring state

TL;DR

This study presents the first detailed spectral and timing analysis of the blazar OQ 334 during its flaring states, revealing rapid variability, emission region location, and flux distribution characteristics.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the spectral behavior, variability timescales, and emission region location of OQ 334 during flares, using broadband data and advanced analysis methods.

Findings

Fast variability timescale of about 9 hours.

Gamma-ray emission region located at the outer edge of the broad-line region.

Gamma-ray fluxes follow a lognormal distribution.

Abstract

The blazar OQ 334 displayed a {\gamma}-ray flare in 2018, after being in the long quiescent {\gamma}-ray state since 2008. Subsequent to the flare, the source was in a higher {\gamma}-ray flux state and again flared in 2020. We present here the first spectral and timing analysis of the source at its various flaring states. During the higher {\gamma}-ray state, we found four major peaks identified as P1, P2, P3, and P4. From timing analysis, we found the rise and decay time of the order of hours with the fastest variability time of 9.01+/-0.78 hr. We found the highest {\gamma}-ray photon of 77 GeV during P4, which suggests the location of the {\gamma}-ray emitting region at the outer edge of the broad-line region or the inner edge of the torus. The {\gamma}-ray spectral analysis of the source indicates that during P4, the {\gamma}-ray spectrum clearly deviates from the power-law behavior. From cross-correlation analysis of the {\gamma}-ray and radio lightcurves, we found that the two emission regions are separated by about 11 pc. Our broadband spectral energy distribution modeling of the source during quiescent and active phases indicates that more electron and proton power are required to change the source from low flux to high flux state. The Anderson-Darling test and histogram fitting results suggest that the three days binned {\gamma}-ray fluxes follow a lognormal distribution.