Relations between the Spectral Indices and Flux Densities of Eight Blazars

Abstract

Relations between the flux densities (F) and spectral indices (α) can help us analyze the emission process. In this paper, we choose 8 blazars (0235+164, 0430+052, 1156+295, 3C345, 1308+326, 1413+135, 3C454.3, and 1749+096) from the University of Michigan Radio Observatory (UMRAO) database to study the relations between the spectral indices (α) and flux densities at 14.5GHz (F14.5). The main results are the following. (1) There are strong anticorrelations between α and F14.5, with the correlation coefficient r in the range from -0.33 to -0.87. (2) The α-F14.5 distributions show elliptic appearance, which have been fitted by elliptic curves. (3) For most of the sources, the time intervals of α-F14.5 elliptic circle (Tc) are consistent with the quasi-periodicities calculated by the averaged light curves and spectral variances (PαF¯).