Nonextensive entropic behavior observed in Quasar 3C 273

TL;DR

This study analyzes multi-wavelength light curves of Quasar 3C 273, revealing nonextensive entropy behavior and identifying entropy jumps in IR and X-ray bands, linked to physical processes like synchrotron flares and dust emission.

Contribution

It is the first to apply nonextensive entropy analysis to Quasar 3C 273's multi-band light curves, uncovering entropy variations related to astrophysical phenomena.

Findings

Nonextensive behavior observed in quasar flux data

Entropy peaks identified in IR and X-ray bands

Correlation between entropy and photon energy explored

Abstract

We investigate the flux intensities spanning from radio waves to X-rays across 39 light curves of Quasar 3C 273, utilizing publicly available data collected by the Integral Science Data Centre (ISDC) database. Our results suggest that Quasar 3C 273 exhibits nonextensive behavior. Furthermore, we calculate the $q$ entropic indices for these light curves using the $q$-Gaussian distribution with a predominant observation of cases where $q>1$. Based on this index, we estimate the non-extensive entropy ($S_{q}$) and explore its correlation with the energy (in eV). In this context, we identify two jump-like increases in entropy, particularly evident in the infrared (IR) and X-ray wavebands. The peak in the far-IR band, around 0.34 eV, results from synchrotron flares evolving from higher to lower energies and thermal radiation emitted by hot dust near the sublimation radius. However, the second entropic peak in the hard X-ray range lacks statistical robustness due to limited data or large measurement uncertainties.