MNRAS 508, 1986–2001 (2021) https://doi.org/10.
1093/mnras/stab2747
Temporal and spectral study of PKS B1222 + 216 flares in 2014
Anshu Chatterjee ,‹ Abhradeep Roy ,‹ Arkadipta Sarkar and Varsha R. Chitnis
Department of High Energy Physics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Colaba, Mumbai 400005, India
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/508/2/1986/6384301 by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research user on 07 February 2022
Accepted 2021 September 17. Received 2021 September 16; in original form 2021 May 23
ABSTRACT
We report on a temporal and spectral study of a flat-spectrum radio quasar, PKS B1222 + 216, in a flare state to get insight into
the acceleration and emission mechanisms inside the jet. It is one of the brightest and highly active blazars in the MeV–GeV
regime. The long-term multiwaveband light curves of this object showed flaring activity in 2014, with two distinct flares. The
work presented here includes the study of flux-index variation, flare fitting, and hardness ratio, and the spectral modelling of
X-ray and γ -ray data. The flux-index correlation found in the MeV–GeV regime indicates a ‘softer when brighter’ feature. The
modelling of γ -ray light curves suggests that low-energy particles initiate both the flares, followed by the injection of high-energy
particles. The short rise time indicates the presence of Fermi first-order acceleration. A single-zone leptonic model is used to fit
the multiwaveband spectral energy distributions generated for both flares. The spectral energy distribution modelling shows that
inverse Compton scattering of the photon field reprocessed from the broad-line region primarily accounts for the GeV emission.
In addition, we have reported a shift in the break energy in the soft X-ray regime during flares, which is due to a rapid change in
the injection spectrum.
Key words: radiation mechanisms: non-thermal – galaxies: active – galaxies: individual: PKS B1222 + 216 – galaxies: jets.
hump via either the pion photoproduction mechanism or proton
1 I N T RO D U C T I O N
synchrotron radiation (Mücke & Protheroe 2001; Mücke et al. 2003),
Blazars are generally considered one of the classes of most violently whereas in a leptonic model it is generally assumed that the high-
variable objects over the entire electromagnetic range in the Universe. energy hump is a result of the upscattering of low-energy seed
Blazars form a special kind of radio-loud active galactic nucleus photons via inverse Compton (IC) scattering by primary electrons
(AGN) with jet emission oriented at small angles (≤10◦ ) to the accelerated in the relativistic jet. The source of the seed photon
observer’s line of sight (Urry & Padovani 1995). The relativistic field can be internal and/or external to the emission zone. If the
beaming effect of jet emission along the line of sight provides a synchrotron photons are generated from the same electron population
self-explanation of its violent nature (Blandford & Königl 1979). that takes part in IC scattering, then the resultant emission is called
Variability over a time-scale of minutes to weeks is a common synchrotron self-Compton (SSC: Bloom & Marscher 1996). On the
phenomenon for these objects and is observed across the entire other hand, if an external photon field is involved in this process, then
electromagnetic spectrum. Based on the presence of strong emission the corresponding emission is called external Compton (EC). The
lines in the optical spectrum, blazars are classified into two main possible sources of external photons are direct thermal photons from
categories: BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects and flat-spectrum radio the accretion disc (EC-disc: Dermer, Schlickeiser & Mastichiadis
quasars (FSRQs). BL Lacs are objects with weak emission lines 1992; Dermer & Schlickeiser 1993) or reprocessed photons from
in their optical spectra, whereas the presence of emission lines of either the broad-line region (BLR) or dusty torus (DT, i.e. EC-BLR
equivalent width (EW) greater than 5 Å is a general criterion for and EC-DT: Ghisellini et al. 1998). In this work, we have considered
FSRQs (Urry & Padovani 1995; Sbarrato et al. 2012). Presently, a a leptonic scenario to explain the observed SED.
total of 22 BL Lacs and 43 FSRQs have been identified with energies PKS B1222+216 (4C + 21.35; z = 0.432: Osterbrock & Pogge
above 100 GeV by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT: Abdollahi 1987; Abdo et al. 2010b) is one of the brightest FSRQs detected
et al. 2020). in the very high energy (VHE) γ -ray regime. PKS B1222 + 216
The spectral energy distribution (SED) of an FSRQ shows a was first detected by a very long baseline interferometry (VLBI)
characteristic double-hump structure. Leptonic or hadronic models observation, which showed an asymmetric nature of the radio
can explain the origin of this double-hump structure. According to structure on milliarcsec scales (Hooimeyer et al. 1992). Further
both models, the first hump comes from the synchrotron emission of radio observations showed that the flux ratio of the core portion
electrons accelerated to ultrarelativistic energies inside the emission to the extended structure in radio wavelengths is of the order of unity
region. The explanation of the second hump is different in different and slightly less luminous compared with the large-scale structure,
models. In the case of a hadronic model, relativistic protons having which is rare in blazars. Based on these facts, PKS B1222 + 216
energies above the interaction threshold produce a high-energy was formally categorized as ‘lobe-dominated’ (Sbarrato et al. 2012).
The source was detected in γ -rays for the first time by the Energetic
Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on board the Compton
E-mail:
[email protected] (AC);
[email protected] Gamma Ray Observatory (Hartman et al. 1999). PKS B1222 + 216
(AR)
C 2021 The Author(s)
Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society
