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Multiwavelength Study of Quiescent States of Mrk 421 with Unprecedented Hard X-Ray Coverage Provided by NuSTAR in 2013

Baloković, M.; Paneque, D.; Madejski, G.; Furniss, A.; Chiang, J.; team:, The NuSTAR; Ajello, M.; Alexander, D.M.; Barret, D.; Blandford, R.; Boggs, S.E.; Christensen, F.E.; Craig, W.W.; Forster, K.; Giommi, P.; Grefenstette, B.W.; Hailey, C.J.; Harrison, F.A.; Hornstrup, A.; Kitaguchi, T.; Koglin, J.E.; Madsen, K.K.; Mao, P.H.; Miyasaka, H.; Mori, K.; Perri, M.; Pivovaroff, M.J.; Puccetti, S.; Rana, V.; Stern, D.; Tagliaferri, G.; Urry, C.M.; Westergaard, N.J.; Zhang, W.W.; Zoglauer, A.; collaboration:, The VERITAS; Archambault, S.; Archer, A.A.; Barnacka, A.; Benbow, W.; Bird, R.; Buckley, J.; Bugaev, V.; Cerruti, M.; Chen, X.; Ciupik, L.; Connolly, M.P.; Cui, W.; Dickinson, H.J.; Dumm, J.; Eisch, J.D.; Falcone, A.; Feng, Q.; Finley, J.P.; Fleischhack, H.; Fortson, L.; Griffin, S.; Griffiths, S.T.; Grube, J.; Gyuk, G.; Huetten, M.; Haakansson, N.; Holder, J.; Humensky, T.B.; Johnson, C.A.; Kaaret, P.; Kertzman, M.; Khassen, Y.; Kieda, D.; Krause, M.; Krennrich, F.; Lang, M.J.; Maier,...

Multiwavelength Study of Quiescent States of Mrk 421 with Unprecedented Hard X-Ray Coverage Provided by NuSTAR in 2013 Thumbnail


Authors

M. Baloković

D. Paneque

G. Madejski

A. Furniss

J. Chiang

The NuSTAR team:

M. Ajello

D. Barret

R. Blandford

S.E. Boggs

F.E. Christensen

W.W. Craig

K. Forster

P. Giommi

B.W. Grefenstette

C.J. Hailey

F.A. Harrison

A. Hornstrup

T. Kitaguchi

J.E. Koglin

K.K. Madsen

P.H. Mao

H. Miyasaka

K. Mori

M. Perri

M.J. Pivovaroff

S. Puccetti

V. Rana

D. Stern

G. Tagliaferri

C.M. Urry

N.J. Westergaard

W.W. Zhang

A. Zoglauer

The VERITAS collaboration:

S. Archambault

A.A. Archer

A. Barnacka

W. Benbow

R. Bird

J. Buckley

V. Bugaev

M. Cerruti

X. Chen

L. Ciupik

M.P. Connolly

W. Cui

H.J. Dickinson

J. Dumm

J.D. Eisch

A. Falcone

Q. Feng

J.P. Finley

H. Fleischhack

L. Fortson

S. Griffin

S.T. Griffiths

J. Grube

G. Gyuk

M. Huetten

N. Haakansson

J. Holder

T.B. Humensky

C.A. Johnson

P. Kaaret

M. Kertzman

Y. Khassen

D. Kieda

M. Krause

F. Krennrich

M.J. Lang

G. Maier

S. McArthur

K. Meagher

P. Moriarty

T. Nelson

D. Nieto

R.A. Ong

N. Park

M. Pohl

A. Popkow

E. Pueschel

P.T. Reynolds

G.T. Richards

E. Roache

M. Santander

G.H. Sembroski

K. Shahinyan

A.W. Smith

D. Staszak

I. Telezhinsky

N.W. Todd

J.V. Tucci

J. Tyler

S. Vincent

A. Weinstein

A. Wilhelm

D.A. Williams

B. Zitzer

The MAGIC collaboration:

M.L. Ahnen

S. Ansoldi

L.A. Antonelli

P. Antoranz

A. Babic

B. Banerjee

P. Bangale

U. Barres de Almeida

J. Barrio

J. Becerra González

W. Bednarek

E. Bernardini

B. Biasuzzi

A. Biland

O. Blanch

S. Bonnefoy

G. Bonnoli

F. Borracci

T. Bretz

E. Carmona

A. Carosi

A. Chatterjee

R. Clavero

P. Colin

E. Colombo

J.L. Contreras

J. Cortina

S. Covino

P. Da Vela

F. Dazzi

A. de Angelis

B. De Lotto

E.D. de Oña Wilhelmi

C. Delgado Mendez

F. Di Pierro

D. Dominis Prester

D. Dorner

M. Doro

S. Einecke

D. Elsaesser

A. Fernández-Barral

D. Fidalgo

M.V. Fonseca

L. Font

K. Frantzen

C. Fruck

D. Galindo

R.J. García López

M. Garczarczyk

D. Garrido Terrats

M. Gaug

P. Giammaria

D. Eisenacher

N. Godinović

A. González Muñoz

D. Guberman

A. Hahn

Y. Hanabata

M. Hayashida

J. Herrera

J. Hose

D. Hrupec

G. Hughes

W. Idec

K. Kodani

Y. Konno

H. Kubo

J. Kushida

A. La Barbera

D. Lelas

E. Lindfors

S. Lombardi

F. Longo

M. López

R. López-Coto

A. López-Oramas

E. Lorenz

P. Majumdar

M. Makariev

K. Mallot

G. Maneva

M. Manganaro

K. Mannheim

L. Maraschi

B. Marcote

M. Mariotti

M. Martínez

D. Mazin

U. Menzel

J.M. Miranda

R. Mirzoyan

A. Moralejo

E. Moretti

D. Nakajima

V. Neustroev

A. Niedzwiecki

M. Nievas-Rosillo

K. Nilsson

K. Nishijima

K. Noda

R. Orito

A. Overkemping

S. Paiano

S. Palacio

M. Palatiello

R. Paoletti

J.M. Paredes

X. Paredes-Fortuny

M. Persic

J. Poutanen

P.G. Prada Moroni

E. Prandini

I. Puljak

W. Rhode

M. Ribó

J. Rico

J. Rodriguez Garcia

T. Saito

K. Satalecka

V. Scapin

C. Schultz

T. Schweizer

S.N. Shore

A. Sillanpää

J. Sitarek

I. Snidaric

D. Sobczynska

A. Stamerra

T. Steinbring

M. Strzys

L.O. Takalo

H. Takami

F. Tavecchio

P. Temnikov

T. Terzić

D. Tescaro

M. Teshima

J. Thaele

D.F. Torres

T. Toyama

A. Treves

V. Verguilov

I. Vovk

J.E. Ward

M. Will

M.H. Wu

R. Zanin

External collaborators:

J. Perkins

F. Verrecchia

C. Leto

M. Böttcher

M. Villata

C.M. Raiteri

J.A. Acosta-Pulido

R. Bachev

A. Berdyugin

D.A. Blinov

M.I. Carnerero

W.P. Chen

P. Chinchilla

G. Damljanovic

C. Eswaraiah

T.S. Grishina

S. Ibryamov

B. Jordan

S.G. Jorstad

M. Joshi

E.N. Kopatskaya

O.M. Kurtanidze

S.O. Kurtanidze

E.G. Larionova

L.V. Larionova

V.M. Larionov

G. Latev

H.C. Lin

A.P. Marscher

A.A. Mokrushina

D.A. Morozova

M.G. Nikolashvili

E. Semkov

A. Strigachev

Yu V. Troitskaya

I.S. Troitsky

O. Vince

J. Barnes

T. Güver

J.W. Moody

A.C. Sadun

S. Sun

T. Hovatta

J.L. Richards

W. Max-Moerbeck

A.C. Readhead

A. Lähteenmäki

M. Tornikoski

J. Tammi

V. Ramakrishnan

R. Reinthal

E. Angelakis

L. Fuhrmann

I. Myserlis

V. Karamanavis

A. Sievers

H. Ungerechts

J.A. Zensus



Abstract

We present coordinated multiwavelength observations of the bright, nearby BL Lacertae object Mrk 421 taken in 2013 January–March, involving GASP-WEBT, Swift, NuSTAR, Fermi-LAT, MAGIC, VERITAS, and other collaborations and instruments, providing data from radio to very high energy (VHE) γ-ray bands. NuSTAR yielded previously unattainable sensitivity in the 3–79 keV range, revealing that the spectrum softens when the source is dimmer until the X-ray spectral shape saturates into a steep G » 3 power law, with no evidence for an exponential cutoff or additional hard components up to ∼80 keV. For the first time, we observed both the synchrotron and the inverse-Compton peaks of the spectral energy distribution (SED) simultaneously shifted to frequencies below the typical quiescent state by an order of magnitude. The fractional variability as a function of photon energy shows a double-bump structure that relates to the two bumps of the broadband SED. In each bump, the variability increases with energy, which, in the framework of the synchrotron self-Compton model, implies that the electrons with higher energies are more variable. The measured multi band variability, the significant X-ray-toVHE correlation down to some of the lowest fluxes ever observed in both bands, the lack of correlation between optical/UV and X-ray flux, the low degree of polarization and its significant (random) variations, the short estimated electron cooling time, and the significantly longer variability timescale observed in the NuSTAR light curves point toward in situ electron acceleration and suggest that there are multiple compact regions contributing to the broadband emission of Mrk 421 during low-activity states.

Citation

Baloković, M., Paneque, D., Madejski, G., Furniss, A., Chiang, J., team:, T. N., …Zensus, J. (2016). Multiwavelength Study of Quiescent States of Mrk 421 with Unprecedented Hard X-Ray Coverage Provided by NuSTAR in 2013. Astrophysical Journal, 819(2), Article 156. https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637x/819/2/156

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 5, 2015
Online Publication Date Mar 9, 2016
Publication Date Mar 9, 2016
Deposit Date May 31, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Astrophysical Journal
Print ISSN 0004-637X
Electronic ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher American Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 819
Issue 2
Article Number 156
DOI https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637x/819/2/156

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Copyright Statement
© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.





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