The Great Markarian 421 Flare of 2010 February: Multiwavelength Variability and Correlation Studies

Abeysekara, Anushka Udara; Benbow, W.; Bird, R.; Brill, A.; Brose, Robert; Buchovecky, M.; Buckley, J. H.; Christiansen, J. L.; Chromey, Alisha; Daniel, M. K.; Dumm, J. P.; Falcone, A.; Feng, Q.; Finley, J. P.; Fortson, L.; Furniss, A.; Galante, N.; Gent, A.; Gillanders, G. H.; Giuri, C.; Gueta, O.; Hassan, Tarek; Hervet, O.; Holder, J.; Hughes, G.; Humensky, T. B.; Johnson, C. A.; Kaaret, Philip; Kar, P.; Kelley-Hoskins, N.; Kertzman, M.; Kieda, D.; Krause, M.; Krennrich, F.; Kumar, S.; Lang, M. J.; Moriarty, P.; Mukherjee, R.; Nelson, Thomas; Nieto, D.; Rosillo, M. Nievas; O’Brien, S.; Ong, R. A.; Otte, A. N.; Park, N.; Petrashyk, A.; Pichel, A.; Pohl, M.; Prado, R. R.; Pueschel, E.; Quinn, J.; Ragan, K.; Reynolds, P. T.; Richards, G.; Roache, E.; Rovero, A. C.; Rulten, C. B.; Sadeh, I.; Santander, M.; Sembroski, G. H.; Shahinyan, K.; Stevenson, B.; Sushch, I.; Tyler, J.; Vassiliev, V. V.; Wakely, S. P.; Weinstein, A.; Wells, R. M.; Wilcox, P.; Wilhelm, A.; Williams, D. A.; Zitzer, B.; Acciari, V. A.; Ansoldi, S.; Antonelli, L. A.; Engels, A. Arbet; Baack, Dominik; Babić, Ana; Banerjee, B.; Almeida, U. Barres de; Barrio, J. A.; González, J. Becerra; Bednarek, W.; Bellizzi, Lorenzo; Bernardini, E.; Berti, Alessio; Besenrieder, Jürgen; Bhattacharyya, W.; Bigongiari, C.; Biland, A.; Blanch, O.; Bonnoli, G.; Busetto, G.; Carosi, R.; Ceribella, Giovanni; Chai, Yating; Cikota, Stefan; Colak, S. M.; Colin, U.; Colombo, E.; Contreras, J. L.; Cortina, J.; Covino, S.; D’Elia, V.; Vela, P. Da; Dazzi, F.; Angelis, A. De; Lotto, B. De; Delfino, M.; Delgado, J.; Pierro, F. Di; Espiñera, E. Do Souto; Prester, D. Dominis; Dorner, D.; Doro, M.; Einecke, S.; Elsäesser, D.; Ramazani, Vandad Fallah; Fattorini, Alicia; Fernández-Barral, A.; Ferrara, G.; Fidalgo, D.; Foffano, Luca; Fonseca, M. V.; Font, L.; Fruck, C.; Galindo, D.; Gallozzi, S.; López, R. J. García; Garczarczyk, M.; Gasparyan, Sargis; Gaug, M.; Godinović, N.; Green, D.; Guberman, D.; Hadasch, D.; Hahn, Alexander; Herrera, J.; Hoang, J.; Hrupec, Dario; Inoue, Susumu; Ishio, Kazuma; Iwamura, Y.; Kubo, H.; Kushida, J.; Lamastra, Alessandra; Lelas, D.; Leone, F.; Lindfors, E.; Lombardi, S.; Longo, F.; López, M.; López-Coto, R.; López-Oramas, A.; Fraga, Bernardo Machado de Oliveira; Maggio, C.; Majumdar, P.; Makariev, M.; Mallamaci, M.; Maneva, G.; Manganaro, M.; Mannheim, K.; Maraschi, L.; Mariotti, M.; Martı́nez, M.; Masuda, S.; Mazin, D.; Miceli, Davide; Minev, M.; Miranda, Jose Miguel; Mirzoyan, R.; Molina, Edgar; Moralejo, A.; Morcuende, D.; Moreno, V.; Moretti, E.; Munar-Adrover, P.; Neustroev, V.; Niedźwiecki, A.; Rosillo, Mireia Nievas; Nigro, Cosimo; Nilsson, K.; Ninci, D.; Nishijima, K.; Noda, K.; Nogués, L.; Nöthe, M.; Paiano, S.; Palacio, J.; Palatiello, M.; Paneque, D.; Paoletti, R.; Paredes, J. M.; Peñil, Pablo; Peresano, M.; Peršić, M.; Moroni, Pier Giorgio Prada; Prandini, E.; Puljak, I.; Rhode, W.; Ribó, M.; Rico, J.; Righi, Chiara; Rugliancich, A.; Saha, L.; Sahakyan, N.; Saito, T.; Satalecka, K.; Schweizer, T.; Sitarek, J.; Šnidarić, Iva; Sobczyńska, D.; Somero, A.; Stamerra, A.; Strom, D.; Strzys, M.; Sun, S.; Surić, T.; Tavecchio, F.; Temnikov, P.; Terzić, T.; Teshima, M.; Torres-Albà, N.; Tsujimoto, S.; Scherpenberg, Juliane van; Vanzo, G.; Acosta, M. Vazquez; Vovk, Ievgen; Will, Martin; Zarić, Darko; Aller, H. D.; Aller, M. F.; Carini, M. T.; Horan, D.; Jordan, B.; Jorstad, Svetlana G.; Kurtanidze, O. M.; Kurtanidze, S. O.; Lähteenmäki, A.; Larionov, V. M.; Ларионова, Е. Г.; Madejski, G.; Marscher, A. P.; Max-Moerbeck, W.; Moody, J. W.; Morozova, D. A.; Nikolashvili, M. G.; Raiteri, C. M.; Readhead, A. C. S.; Richards, J. L.; Sadun, A. C.; Sakamoto, T.; Sigua, L. A.; Smith, Paul S.; Talvikki, H.; Tammi, J.; Tornikoski, M.; Troitsky, I. S.; Villata, M.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab6612

Cited by 29 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 103 publications

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“…Although, no change in the flux was observed in the 24 GHz band by Medicina, enhanced activity at 5 GHz (also with Medicina) was observed. We noted an increase in the polarization fraction with VLBA The two large VHE -ray flaring episodes of Mrk 421 in 2010 February [1] and 2013 April [2] have been excluded to avoid large biases in the distributions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Multiwavelength variability and correlation studies of Mrk421 during historically low X-ray and γ-ray activity in 2015–2016

Banerjee¹,

Acciari²,

Ansoldi³

et al. 2021

Proceedings of 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2021)

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In this work, we report multi-band flux variability and correlations of the nearby (z=0.031) blazar Markarian 421 (Mrk 421) using multi-wavelength (MWL) data from November 2014 to June 2016. In this period, Mrk 421 exhibited historically low activity in X-rays and very-high-energy gamma rays (VHE; E>0.1 TeV) and an additional spectral component was observed by Swift-BAT. The highest flux variability occurs in X-rays and VHE which, despite the low activity, show a significant positive correlation with no time lag. The hardness ratios in the X-rays and VHE -rays show the "harder-when-brighter" trend observed in many blazars. Interestingly, the trend flattens at the highest fluxes, which suggests different processes dominating the brightest states. Enlarging our data set with data from the years 2007 to 2014, we measured a positive correlation between the optical and GeV emission centered at zero time lag, and a positive correlation between the optical/GeV and the radio emission over a range of about 60 days centered at a time lag of 43+9/-6 days. This observation is consistent with the radio-bright zone being located about 0.2 parsec downstream from the optical/GeV emission regions. In most of the energy bands, the flux distribution follows the Lognormal, rather than the Normal function, indicating that the variability may be dominated by a multiplicative process.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Multiwavelength variability and correlation studies of Mrk421 during historically low X-ray and γ-ray activity in 2015–2016

Banerjee¹,

Acciari²,

Ansoldi³

et al. 2021

Proceedings of 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2021)

Self Cite

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“…Mrk 421 exhibited an extraordinary flaring episode in February 2010 [7]. The VHE flux observed by VERITAS from this HBL during an intense MWL campaign reached 27 Crab, the highest ever observed from an AGN.…”

Section: Recent Highlightsmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…H 1426+428 ( = 0.129) is an extreme HBL with synchrotron peak located at 10 18. The VERITAS light curve from Mrk 421 on Feb. 17, 2010 [7]. The dashed lines are exponential fits to the two bursts (2-min-bins).…”

Section: Recent Highlightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recent Results from VERITAS AGN Observations

Benbow¹

2021

Proceedings of 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2021)

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VERITAS is one of the world's most sensitive detectors of astrophysical very high energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma rays. This observatory has operated for ∼14 years, and nearly 7,000 hours of its observations have been targeted on active galactic nuclei (AGN). Approximately 300 AGN were observed with VERITAS, and 40 are detected. These studies are generally accompanied by contemporaneous, broadband observations, which enable detailed probes of the underlying jet-powered processes. Recent scientific results from VERITAS AGN observations are presented.

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“…Mrk 421 was highly active during other months in 2010, and the VERITAS Collaboration reported another flare in 2010 February (MJD 55234-55240), the brightest ever observed from this object in VHE gamma-rays (Abeysekara et al 2020). They concluded that the time variability of the source is difficult to explain using a singlezone SSC model.…”

Section: F L a R I N G Ac T I V I T Y I N 0 1mentioning

confidence: 99%

Photohadronic modelling of the 2010 gamma-ray flare from Mrk 421

León

Brown

Chadwick

2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Blazars are a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that have a relativistic jet with a small viewing angle towards the observer. Recent results based on hadronic scenarios have motivated an ongoing discussion of how a blazar can produce high energy neutrinos during a flaring state and which scenario can successfully describe the observed gamma-ray behaviour. Markarian 421 is one of the closest and brightest objects in the extragalactic gamma-ray sky and showed flaring activity over a 14-days period in 2010 March. In this work, we describe the performed analysis of Fermi-LAT data from the source focused on the MeV range (100 MeV–1 GeV), and study the possibility of a contribution coming from the pγ interactions between protons and MeV SSC target photons to fit the very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission. The fit results were compared with two leptonic models (one-zone and two-zone) using the Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) test, which evaluates goodness-of-fit alongside the simplicity of the model. In all cases, the photohadronic model was favoured as a better fit description in comparison to the one-zone leptonic model, and with respect to the two-zone model in the majority of cases. Our results show the potential of a photohadronic contribution to a lepto-hadronic origin of gamma-ray flux of blazars. Future gamma-ray observations above tens of TeV and below 100 MeV in energy will be crucial to test and discriminate between models.

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The Great Markarian 421 Flare of 2010 February: Multiwavelength Variability and Correlation Studies

Abstract: This is an electronic reprint of the original article. This reprint may differ from the original in pagination and typographic detail.

Cited by 29 publications

References 103 publications

Multiwavelength variability and correlation studies of Mrk421 during historically low X-ray and γ-ray activity in 2015–2016

Multiwavelength variability and correlation studies of Mrk421 during historically low X-ray and γ-ray activity in 2015–2016

Recent Results from VERITAS AGN Observations

Photohadronic modelling of the 2010 gamma-ray flare from Mrk 421

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