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Title:
Optical Monitoring of a Sample of Gamma-ray Blazars at the Maria Mitchell Observatory
Authors:
Olmstead, Alice; Jorstad, S. G.; Marscher, A. P.; Walker, G.; Strelnitski, V.; Larionov, V. M.
Affiliation:
AA(Boston University), AB(Boston University), AC(Boston University), AD(Maria Mitchell Obs), AE(Maria Mitchell Obs), AF(St. Petersburg State U., Russian Federation)
Publication:
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #446.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.331
Publication Date:
01/2009
Origin:
AAS
Bibliographic Code:
2009AAS...21344607O

Abstract

We observed 12 blazars and one very luminous FRII radio galaxy in the B and R bands using the Maria Mitchell Observatory 17” Dall-Kirkham and 24” Ritchey-Chretien reflectors from winter to late summer 2008. In several of the blazars, we detect variability on a timescale of days to weeks with a change in flux by a factor of up to 2.5. We supplement our optical R band observations with data taken by the RATCam of the 2 meter Liverpool Telescope (LT). In addition, we observed many of these same blazars in other wavebands using the LT's SupIRCam, the 70 cm telescope at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and RXTE during a similar time period. In addition, we use public data from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope's LAT. We further support our dataset by comparing our multi-wavelength light curves to VLBA images of the radio jets at 43 GHz for all of the objects. We focus on two blazars, PKS1510-089 and 3C454.3, that had particularly strong outbursts at multiple wavebands. Using a discrete cross-correlation method, we determine time lags between these outbursts as they appeared at different frequencies. We use these results to discuss possible correlations and anti-correlations between variations in the optical R band and other bands, as well as the physical constraints that time delays might impose on where the emission originates.

The research at Boston U. was supported by NSF grant AST-0406865 and NASA grants NNX06AG86G (RXTE), NNX08AJ64G (ADP), and NNX08AV65G (Fermi). The research at Maria Mitchell Obs. was supported by the NSF/REU grant AST-0354056 and by the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association.

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