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First NuSTAR Observations of Mrk 501 within a Radio to TeV Multi-Instrument Campaign

  • NuSTAR Team
  • , MAGIC Collaboration
  • , VERITAS Collaboration
  • Stanford University
  • Space Sciences Laboratory
  • Technical University of Denmark
  • Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
  • Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)
  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  • Yale University
  • NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas
  • University of Maryland, College Park
  • Humboldt University of Berlin
  • Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne
  • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • University of Turku
  • University of Oulu
  • Max-Planck-Institut für Physik
  • Columbia University
  • Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
  • Università degli Studi di Udine
  • National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF)
  • University of Siena
  • University of Split
  • Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
  • Complutense University of Madrid
  • University of Łódź
  • Institut de Fisica d'Altes Energies
  • Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas - CIEMAT
  • Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
  • University of Potsdam
  • Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron
  • National Central University
  • California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

71 Citations (Scopus)
58 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We report on simultaneous broadband observations of the TeV-emitting blazar Markarian 501 between 2013 April 1 and August 10, including the first detailed characterization of the synchrotron peak with Swift and NuSTAR. During the campaign, the nearby BL Lac object was observed in both a quiescent and an elevated state. The broadband campaign includes observations with NuSTAR, MAGIC, VERITAS, the Fermi Large Area Telescope, Swift X-ray Telescope and UV Optical Telescope, various ground-based optical instruments, including the GASP-WEBT program, aswell as radio observations by OVRO, Metsähovi, and the F-Gamma consortium. Some of the MAGIC observations were affected by a sand layer from the Saharan desert, and had to be corrected using event-by-event corrections derived with a Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) facility.This is the first time that LIDAR information is used to produce a physics result with Cherenkov Telescope data taken during adverse atmospheric conditions, and hence sets a precedent for the current andfuture ground-based gamma-ray instruments. The NuSTAR instrument provides unprecedented sensitivity in hard X-rays, showing the source to display a spectral energy distribution (SED) between 3 and 79 keV consistent with a log-parabolic spectrum and hard X-ray variability onhour timescales. None (of the four extended NuSTAR observations) show evidence of the onset of inverse-Compton emission at hard X-ray energies. We apply a single-zone equilibrium synchrotron self-Compton(SSC) model to five simultaneous broadband SEDs. We find that the SSC model can reproduce the observed broadband states through a decrease inthe magnetic field strength coinciding with an increase in the luminosity and hardness of the relativistic leptons responsible for the high-energy emission.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)65
JournalThe Astrophysical Journal
Volume812
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2015
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • BL Lacertae objects: general
  • galaxies: individual: Markarian 501
  • X-rays: galaxies

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