Extremely violent optical microvariability in blazars: Fact or fiction?

Variability amplitudes larger than 1 mag over time-scales of a few tens of minutes have recently been reported in the optical light curves of several blazars. In order to independently verify the real occurrence of such extremely violent events, we undertook an observational study of a selected samp...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Cellone, Sergio Aldo, Romero, Gustavo Esteban, Araudo, Anabella Teresa
Formato: Articulo
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 2006
Materias:
Ciencias Astronómicas
BL Lacertae objects: general
Galaxies: active
Galaxies: photometry
Acceso en línea:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/83045
Aporte de:
SEDICI (UNLP) de Universidad Nacional de La Plata
id I19-R120-10915-83045
record_format dspace
institution Universidad Nacional de La Plata
institution_str I-19
repository_str R-120
collection SEDICI (UNLP)
language Inglés
topic Ciencias Astronómicas
BL Lacertae objects: general
Galaxies: active
Galaxies: photometry
spellingShingle Ciencias Astronómicas
BL Lacertae objects: general
Galaxies: active
Galaxies: photometry
Cellone, Sergio Aldo
Romero, Gustavo Esteban
Araudo, Anabella Teresa
Extremely violent optical microvariability in blazars: Fact or fiction?
topic_facet Ciencias Astronómicas
BL Lacertae objects: general
Galaxies: active
Galaxies: photometry
description Variability amplitudes larger than 1 mag over time-scales of a few tens of minutes have recently been reported in the optical light curves of several blazars. In order to independently verify the real occurrence of such extremely violent events, we undertook an observational study of a selected sample of three blazars: PKS 0048-097, PKS 0754+100 and PKS 1510-089. Possible systematic error sources during data acquisition and reduction were carefully evaluated. We indeed found flux variability at intra-night time-scales in all the three sources, although no extremely violent behaviour, as reported by other authors, was detected. We show that an incorrect choice of the stars used for differential photometry will, under fairly normal conditions, lead to spurious variability with large amplitudes on short time-scales. Wrong results of this kind can be avoided with the use of simple error-control techniques.
format Articulo
Articulo
author Cellone, Sergio Aldo
Romero, Gustavo Esteban
Araudo, Anabella Teresa
author_facet Cellone, Sergio Aldo
Romero, Gustavo Esteban
Araudo, Anabella Teresa
author_sort Cellone, Sergio Aldo
title Extremely violent optical microvariability in blazars: Fact or fiction?
title_short Extremely violent optical microvariability in blazars: Fact or fiction?
title_full Extremely violent optical microvariability in blazars: Fact or fiction?
title_fullStr Extremely violent optical microvariability in blazars: Fact or fiction?
title_full_unstemmed Extremely violent optical microvariability in blazars: Fact or fiction?
title_sort extremely violent optical microvariability in blazars: fact or fiction?
publishDate 2006
url http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/83045
work_keys_str_mv AT cellonesergioaldo extremelyviolentopticalmicrovariabilityinblazarsfactorfiction
AT romerogustavoesteban extremelyviolentopticalmicrovariabilityinblazarsfactorfiction
AT araudoanabellateresa extremelyviolentopticalmicrovariabilityinblazarsfactorfiction
bdutipo_str Repositorios
_version_ 1764820488226340867

Ejemplares similares