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  4. MULTIWAVELENGTH STUDY OF QUIESCENT STATES OF Mrk 421 WITH UNPRECEDENTED HARD X-RAY COVERAGE PROVIDED BY NuSTAR IN 2013
 
research article

MULTIWAVELENGTH STUDY OF QUIESCENT STATES OF Mrk 421 WITH UNPRECEDENTED HARD X-RAY COVERAGE PROVIDED BY NuSTAR IN 2013

Balokovic, M.
•
Paneque, D.
•
Madejski, G.
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2016
The Astrophysical Journal

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).-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 Gamma approximate to 3 power law, with no evidence for an exponential cutoff or additional hard components up to similar 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-to-VHE 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.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.3847/0004-637X/819/2/156
Web of Science ID

WOS:000372305700068

Author(s)
Balokovic, M.
Paneque, D.
Madejski, G.
Furniss, A.
Chiang, J.
Ajell, M.
Alexander, D. M.
Barret, D.
Blandford, R. D.
Boggs, S. E.
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Corporate authors
NuSTAR Team; VERITAS Collaboration; MAGIC Collaboration
Date Issued

2016

Publisher

Iop Publishing Ltd

Published in
The Astrophysical Journal
Volume

819

Issue

2

Start page

156

Subjects

BL Lacertae objects: individual (Markarian 421)

•

galaxies: active

•

gamma rays: general

•

radiation mechanisms: nonthermal

•

X-rays: galaxies

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
IPHYS  
Available on Infoscience
July 19, 2016
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/127422
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