Study of optical and gamma-ray long-term variability in blazars

TL;DR

This study analyzes a decade of optical and gamma-ray data from blazars, revealing high variability, long-memory processes, correlated emissions, heavy-tailed distributions, and possible quasi-periodic oscillations, enhancing understanding of blazar jet physics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive long-term variability analysis of blazars using multiple time-series methods, highlighting correlations and potential periodicities not previously detailed.

Findings

Sources are highly variable in both bands.

Gamma-ray PSD shows flicker noise, indicating long-memory processes.

Evidence of quasi-periodic oscillations in some sources.

Abstract

Blazars, a subset of powerful active galactic nuclei, feature relativistic jets that shine in a broadband electromagnetic radiation, e. g. from radio to TeV emission. Here I present the results of the studies that explore gamma-ray and optical variability properties of a sample of gamma-ray bright sources Several methods of time-series analyses are performed on the decade-long optical and Fermi/LAT observations. The main results are as follows: The sources are found highly variable in both the bands, and the gamma-ray power spectral density is found to be consistent with flicker noise suggesting long-memory processes at work. While comparing two emission, not only the overall optical and the $\gamma$-ray emission are highly correlated but also both the observation distributions exhibit heavy tailed log-normal distribution and linear RMS-flux relation. In addition, in some of the sources indications of quasi-periodic oscillation were revealed with similar characteristic timescales in both the bands. We discuss the results in light of current blazar models with relativistic shocks propagating down the jet viewed close to the line of sight.