Rapid X-ray Variability in Mkn 421 during a Multiwavelength Campaign

TL;DR

This study presents a detailed multi-wavelength analysis of rapid X-ray variability in the blazar Mkn 421, revealing energy-dependent variability, spectral hardening during brightening, and intra-band lead times, enhancing understanding of jet emission mechanisms.

Contribution

It provides new insights into short-term variability and spectral behavior of Mkn 421 through simultaneous multi-wavelength observations and detailed spectral and cross-correlation analyses.

Findings

X-ray variability occurs on tens of ks timescales.

Fractional variability increases with energy across the synchrotron hump.

Intra-X-ray correlations suggest the 0.6-0.8 keV band leads others by ~4.6 ks.

Abstract

The study of short-term variability properties in AGN jets has the potential to shed light on their particle acceleration and emission mechanisms. We report results from a four-day coordinated multi-wavelength campaign on the highly-peaked blazar (HBL) Mkn 421 in 2019 January. We obtained X-ray data from AstroSAT, BVRI photometry with the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT), and TeV data from FACT to explore short-term multi-wavelength variability in this HBL. The X-ray continuum is rapidly variable on time-scales of tens of ks. Fractional variability amplitude increases with energy across the synchrotron hump, consistent with previous studies; we interpret this observation in the context of a model with multiple cells whose emission spectra contain cutoffs that follow a power-law distribution. We also performed time-averaged and time-resolved (time-scales of 6 ks) spectral fits; a broken power-law model fits all spectra well; time-resolved spectral fitting reveals the usual hardening when brightening behaviour. Intra-X-ray cross correlations yield evidence for the 0.6-0.8 keV band to likely lead the other bands by an average of 4.6 +- 2.6 ks, but only during the first half of the observation. The source displayed minimal night-to-night variability at all wavebands thus precluding significant interband correlations during our campaign. The broadband SED is modeled well with a standard one-zone leptonic model, yielding jet parameters consistent with those obtained from previous SEDs of this source.