Characterization of Markarian 421 during its most violent year: Multiwavelength variability and correlations

Abe, K.; Abe, S.; Abhir, J.; Abhishek, A.; Acciari, V. A.; Aguasca-Cabot, A.; Agudo, I.; Aniello, T.; Ansoldi, S.; Antonelli, L. A.; Arbet Engels, A.; Arcaro, C.; Asano, K.; Baack, D.; Babić, A.; Barres de Almeida, U.; Barrio, J. A.; Batković, I.; Bautista, A.; Baxter, J.; Becerra González, J.; Bednarek, W.; Bernardini, E.; Bernete, J.; Berti, A.; Besenrieder, J.; Bigongiari, C.; Biland, A.; Blanch, O.; Bonnoli, G.; Bošnjak, Ž.; Bronzini, E.; Burelli, I.; Campoy-Ordaz, A.; Carosi, R.; Carretero-Castrillo, M.; Castro-Tirado, A. J.; Cerasole, D.; Ceribella, G.; Chai, Y.; Cifuentes, A.; Colombo, E.; Contreras, J. L.; Cortina, J.; Covino, S.; D'Amico, G.; D'Ammando, F.; D'Elia, V.; Da Vela, P.; Dazzi, F.; De Angelis, A.; De Lotto, B.; de Menezes, R.; Delfino, M.; Delgado, J.; Delgado Mendez, C.; Di Pierro, F.; Di Tria, R.; Di Venere, L.; Dominis Prester, D.; Donini, A.; Dorner, D.; Doro, M.; Eisenberger, L.; Elsaesser, D.; Escudero, J.; Fariña, L.; Fattorini, A.; Foffano, L.; Font, L.; Fröse, S.; Fukami, S.; Fukazawa, Y.; García López, R. J.; Garczarczyk, M.; Gasparyan, S.; Gaug, M.; Giesbrecht Paiva, J. G.; Giglietto, N.; Giordano, F.; Gliwny, P.; Godinović, N.; Gradetzke, T.; Grau, R.; Green, D.; Green, J. G.; Günther, P.; Hadasch, D.; Hahn, A.; Hassan, T.; Heckmann, L.; Herrera Llorente, J.; Hrupec, D.; Imazawa, R.; Ishio, K.; Jiménez Martínez, I.; Jormanainen, J.; Kankkunen, S.; Kayanoki, T.; Kerszberg, D.; Kluge, G. W.; Kouch, P. M.; Kubo, H.; Kushida, J.; Láinez, M.; Lamastra, A.; Leone, F.; Lindfors, E.; Lombardi, S.; Longo, F.; López-Coto, R.; López-Moya, M.; López-Oramas, A.; Loporchio, S.; Lorini, A.; Majumdar, P.; Makariev, M.; Maneva, G.; Manganaro, M.; Mangano, S.; Mannheim, K.; Mariotti, M.; Martínez, M.; Martínez-Chicharro, M.; Mas-Aguilar, A.; Mazin, D.; Menchiari, S.; Mender, S.; Miceli, D.; Miener, T.; Miranda, J. M.; Mirzoyan, R.; Molero González, M.; Molina, E.; Mondal, H. A.; Moralejo, A.; Morcuende, D.; Nakamori, T.; Nanci, C.; Neustroev, V.; Nickel, L.; Nigro, C.; Nikolić, L.; Nilsson, K.; Nishijima, K.; Njoh Ekoume, T.; Noda, K.; Nozaki, S.; Okumura, A.; Otero-Santos, J.; Paiano, S.; Paneque, D.; Paoletti, R.; Paredes, J. M.; Peresano, M.; Persic, M.; Pihet, M.; Pirola, G.; Podobnik, F.; Prada Moroni, P. G.; Prandini, E.; Principe, G.; Rhode, W.; Ribó, M.; Rico, J.; Righi, C.; Sahakyan, N.; Saito, T.; Saturni, F. G.; Schmidt, K.; Schmuckermaier, F.; Schubert, J. L.; Schweizer, T.; Sciaccaluga, A.; Silvestri, G.; Sitarek, J.; Sobczynska, D.; Stamerra, A.; Strišković, J.; Strom, D.; Suda, Y.; Tajima, H.; Takahashi, M.; Takeishi, R.; Tavecchio, F.; Temnikov, P.; Terauchi, K.; Terzić, T.; Teshima, M.; Truzzi, S.; Tutone, A.; Ubach, S.; van Scherpenberg, J.; Ventura, S.; Verna, G.; Viale, I.; Vigorito, C. F.; Vitale, V.; Vovk, I.; Walter, R.; Wersig, F.; Will, M.; Yamamoto, T.; Jorstad, S. G.; Marscher, A. P.; Perri, M.; Leto, C.; Verrecchia, F.; Aller, M.; Max-Moerbeck, W.; Readhead, A. C. S.; Lähteenmäki, A.; Tornikoski, M.; Gurwell, M. A.; Wehrle, A. E.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202451624

Published February 2025 | Version Published

Journal Article Open

Characterization of Markarian 421 during its most violent year: Multiwavelength variability and correlations

1. Tokai University
2. University of Tokyo
3. ETH Zurich
4. University of Siena
5. Institute for High Energy Physics
6. University of Barcelona
7. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
8. National Institute for Astrophysics
9. University of Udine
10. International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics (ICRA), Rome, Italy
11. Max Planck Institute for Physics
12. University of Padua
13. TU Dortmund University
14. University of Zagreb
15. Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas
16. Complutense University of Madrid
17. University of La Laguna
18. University of Łódź
19. Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas
20. Autonomous University of Barcelona
21. University of Pisa
22. INFN Sezione di Bari
23. University of Bergen
24. Istituto di Radioastronomia di Bologna
25. University of Turin
26. University of Rijeka
27. University of Würzburg
28. Hiroshima University
29. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY
30. Armenian MAGIC Group: ICRANet-Armenia, 0019, Yerevan, Armenia
31. University of Split
32. University of Osijek
33. Nicolaus Copernicus University
34. University of Turku
35. University of Oslo
36. University of Trieste
37. Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
38. Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy
39. Yamagata University
40. University of Oulu
41. Chiba University
42. Nagoya University
43. INAF, 35122, Padova, Italy
44. Kyoto University
45. National Institute for Nuclear Physics
46. University of Geneva
47. Konan University
48. Boston University
49. Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
50. Astronomical Observatory of Rome
51. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
52. University of Chile
53. California Institute of Technology
54. Aalto University
55. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
56. Space Science Institute

Aims. Mrk 421 was in its most active state around early 2010, which led to the highest TeV gamma-ray flux ever recorded from any active galactic nuclei (AGN). We aim to characterize the multiwavelength behavior during this exceptional year for Mrk 421, and evaluate whether it is consistent with the picture derived with data from other less exceptional years.

Methods. We investigated the period from November 5, 2009, (MJD 55140) until July 3, 2010, (MJD 55380) with extensive coverage from very-high-energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma rays to radio with MAGIC, VERITAS, Fermi-LAT, RXTE, Swift, GASP-WEBT, VLBA, and a variety of additional optical and radio telescopes. We characterized the variability by deriving fractional variabilities as well as power spectral densities (PSDs). In addition, we investigated images of the jet taken with VLBA and the correlation behavior among different energy bands.

Results. Mrk 421 was in widely different states of activity throughout the campaign, ranging from a low-emission state to its highest VHE flux ever recorded. We find the strongest variability in X-rays and VHE gamma rays, and PSDs compatible with power-law functions with indices around 1.5. We observe strong correlations between X-rays and VHE gamma rays at zero time lag with varying characteristics depending on the exact energy band. We also report a marginally significant (∼3σ) positive correlation between high-energy (HE; E > 100 MeV) gamma rays and the ultraviolet band. We detected marginally significant (∼3σ) correlations between the HE and VHE gamma rays, and between HE gamma rays and the X-ray, that disappear when the large flare in February 2010 is excluded from the correlation study, hence indicating the exceptionality of this flaring event in comparison with the rest of the campaign. The 2010 violent activity of Mrk 421 also yielded the first ejection of features in the VLBA images of the jet of Mrk 421. Yet the large uncertainties in the ejection times of these unprecedented radio features prevent us from firmly associating them to the specific flares recorded during the 2010 campaign. We also show that the collected multi-instrument data are consistent with a scenario where the emission is dominated by two regions, a compact and extended zone, which could be considered as a simplified implementation of an energy-stratified jet as suggested by recent IXPE observations.

Copyright and License

© The Authors 2025. Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Open Access funding provided by Max Planck Society.

Acknowledgement

The MAGIC collaboration would like to thank the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias for the excellent working conditions at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma. The financial support of the German BMBF, MPG and HGF; the Italian INFN and INAF; the Swiss National Fund SNF; the grants PID2019-104114RB-C31, PID2019-104114RB-C32, PID2019-104114RB-C33, PID2019-105510GB-C31, PID2019-107847RB-C41, PID2019-107847RB-C42, PID2019-107847RB-C44, PID2019-107988GB-C22, PID2022-136828NB-C41, PID2022-137810NB-C22, PID2022-138172NB-C41, PID2022-138172NB-C42, PID2022-138172NB-C43, PID2022-139117NB-C41, PID2022-139117NB-C42, PID2022-139117NB-C43, PID2022-139117NB-C44 funded by the Spanish MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and “ERDF A way of making Europe”; the Indian Department of Atomic Energy; the Japanese ICRR, the University of Tokyo, JSPS, and MEXT; the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, National RI Roadmap Project DO1-400/18.12.2020 and the Academy of Finland grant nr. 320045 is gratefully acknowledged. This work was also been supported by Centros de Excelencia “Severo Ochoa” y Unidades “María de Maeztu” program of the Spanish MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 (CEX2019-000920-S, CEX2019-000918-M, CEX2021-001131-S) and by the CERCA institution and grants 2021SGR00426 and 2021SGR00773 of the Generalitat de Catalunya; by the Croatian Science Foundation (HrZZ) Project IP-2022-10-4595 and the University of Rijeka Project uniri-prirod-18-48; by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB1491) and by the Lamarr-Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence; by the Polish Ministry Of Education and Science grant No. 2021/WK/08; and by the Brazilian MCTIC, CNPq and FAPERJ. The Fermi LAT Collaboration acknowledges generous ongoing support from a number of agencies and institutes that have supported both the development and the operation of the LAT as well as scientific data analysis. These include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Energy in the United States, the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules in France, the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare in Italy, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Japan, and the K. A. Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish National Space Board in Sweden. Additional support for science analysis during the operations phase is gratefully acknowledged from the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Italy and the Centre National d’Études Spatiales in France. This work performed in part under DOE Contract DE-AC02-76SF00515. A.A.E. and D.P. acknowledge support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy EXC-2094-390783311. The research at Boston University was supported in part by several NASA Fermi Guest Investigator grants, the latest of which are 80NSSC23K1507 and 80NSSC23K1508. This study was based in part on observations conducted using the 1.8m Perkins Telescope Observatory (PTO) in Arizona, which is owned and operated by Boston University. The VLBA is an instrument of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated by Associated Universities, Inc. Research at UMRAO was supported by a series of grants from the NSF (most recently AST-0607523) and from NASA (including Fermi G.I. awards NNX09AU16G, NNX10AP16G, NNX11AO13G, and NNX13AP18G). Funds for the operation of UMRAO were provided by the University of Michigan. The Submillimeter Array is a joint project between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is funded by the Smithsonian Institution and the Academia Sinica. We recognize that Maunakea is a culturally important site for the indigenous Hawaiian people; we are privileged to study the cosmos from its summit.

Contributions

J. Abhir: MAGIC analysis cross-check; A. Arbet-Engels: variability and correlation analysis, discussion and interpretation, paper drafting; D. Paneque: coordination of MWL observations and coordination of the MWL data reduction, RXTE-PCA analysis, discussion and interpretation, paper drafting; F. Schmuckermaier: project management, MAGIC and Fermi-LAT data analysis, variability and correlation analysis, discussion and interpretation, paper drafting; The rest of the authors have contributed in one or several of the following ways: design, construction, maintenance and operation of the instrument(s) used to acquire the data; preparation and/or evaluation of the observation proposals; data acquisition, processing, calibration and/or reduction; production of analysis tools and/or related Monte Carlo simulations; overall discussions about the contents of the draft, as well as related refinements in the descriptions.

Data Availability

Data shown in Fig. 1 are available available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr ( 130.79.128.5 ) or via https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/694/A195

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Is new version of: Discussion Paper: arXiv:2501.03831 (arXiv)
Is supplemented by: Dataset: https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/694/A195 (URL)

Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Max Planck Society
Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
National Institute for Astrophysics
Swiss National Science Foundation
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2019-104114RB-C31
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2019-104114RB-C32
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2019-104114RB-C33
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2019-105510GB-C31
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2019-107847RB-C41
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2019-107847RB-C42
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2019-107847RB-C44
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2019-107988GB-C22
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2022-136828NB-C41
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2022-137810NB-C22
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2022-138172NB-C41
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2022-138172NB-C42
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2022-138172NB-C43
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2022-139117NB-C41
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2022-139117NB-C42
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2022-139117NB-C43
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
PID2022-139117NB-C44
Department of Atomic Energy
Institute for Cosmic Ray Research
The University of Tokyo
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Ministry of Education and Science
Research Council of Finland
320045
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
CEX2019-000920-S
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
CEX2019-000918-M
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
CEX2021-001131-S
CERCA Institution
Government of Catalonia
2021SGR00426
Government of Catalonia
2021SGR00773
Croatian Science Foundation
IP-2022-10-4595
University of Rijeka
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
SFB1491
Lamarr Institute
Ministry of Science and Higher Education
2021/WK/08
Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation
National Council for Scientific and Technological Development
Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
United States Department of Energy
DE-AC02-76SF00515
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
EXC-2094-390783311
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC23K1507
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC23K1508
National Science Foundation
AST-0607523
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NNX09AU16G
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NNX10AP16G
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NNX11AO13G
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NNX13AP18G

Accepted: 2024-12-27
Available: 2025-02-14

Published online

Caltech groups: Astronomy Department, Owens Valley Radio Observatory, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
Publication Status: Published

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Characterization of Markarian 421 during its most violent year: Multiwavelength variability and correlations

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Characterization of Markarian 421 during its most violent year: Multiwavelength variability and correlations

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Copyright and License

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