First detection of VHE gamma-ray emission from TXS~1515--273, study of its X-ray variability and spectral energy distribution

TL;DR

This paper reports the first detection of VHE gamma-ray emission from the blazar TXS 1515-273, along with detailed multi-wavelength observations revealing its variability, spectral energy distribution, and modeling of its emission mechanisms.

Contribution

It presents the first multi-wavelength campaign on TXS 1515-273, including the first VHE detection and a comprehensive analysis of its spectral and variability properties.

Findings

First VHE detection with 7.6σ significance by MAGIC.

X-ray observations show hour-scale flares and cooling regimes.

Broad-band spectral modeling with one-zone and two-component leptonic models.

Abstract

We report here on the first multi-wavelength (MWL) campaign on the blazar TXS 1515-273, undertaken in 2019 and extending from radio to very-high-energy gamma rays (VHE). Up until now, this blazar had not been the subject of any detailed MWL observations. It has a rather hard photon index at GeV energies and was considered a candidate extreme high-synchrotronpeaked source. MAGIC observations resulted in the first-time detection of the source in VHE with a statistical significance of 7.6$\sigma$. The average integral VHE flux of the source is 6 $\pm$ 1% of the Crab nebula flux above 400 GeV. X-ray coverage was provided by Swift-XRT, XMMNewton, and NuSTAR. The long continuous X-ray observations were separated by $\sim$ 9 h, both showing clear hour scale flares. In the XMM-Newton data, both the rise and decay timescales are longer in the soft X-ray than in the hard X-ray band, indicating the presence of a particle cooling regime. The X-ray variability timescales were used to constrain the size of the emission region and the strength of the magnetic field. The data allowed us to determine the synchrotron peak frequency and classify the source as a flaring high, but not extreme, synchrotron peaked object. Considering the constraints and variability patterns from the X-ray data, we model the broad-band spectral energy distribution. We applied a simple one-zone model, which could not reproduce the radio emission and the shape of the optical emission, and a two-component leptonic model with two interacting components, enabling us to reproduce the emission from radio to VHE band.