Speaker
Dr
Nachiketa Chakraborty
(Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik)
Description
Flaring states of the BL Lac object, Mrk 501 were observed by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) during 2012 and 2014. Observations in 2014 recorded flux levels higher than one Crab unit and revealed rapid variability at very high energies ($\sim$ 2-20 TeV). The high statistics afforded by the flares allowed us to probe the presence of minutes timescale variability and study its statistical characteristics at purely TeV energies owing to the high threshold energy of approximately 2 TeV. Doubling times of a few minutes are estimated for fluxes, F(> 2 TeV). Statistical tests on the lightcurves show interesting temporal structure in the variations including deviations from a normal flux distribution similar to those found in the PKS 2155-304 flare of July 2006, at nearly an order of magnitude higher threshold energy. Rapid variations at such high energies put strong constraints on the physical mechanisms in the blazar jet.
| Registration number following "ICRC2015-I/" | 928 |
|---|---|
| Collaboration | H.E.S.S. |
Primary author
Dr
Nachiketa Chakraborty
(Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik)
Co-authors
Agnieszka Jacholkowska
(LPHNE)
Dr
Andrew Taylor
(Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies)
Carlo Romoli
(Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies)
Dr
Frank Rieger
(Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik)
Gabriele Cologna
(Landessternwarte)
Prof.
Stefan Wagner
(Landessternwarte Heidelberg)
