Very High Energy Emission from Blazars Interpreted Through Simultaneous Multiwavelength Observations
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UNIVERSITA` DEGLI STUDI DI SIENA FACOLTA` DI SCIENZE MATEMATICHE, FISICHE E NATURALI Dipartimento di Fisica Very High Energy emission from blazars interpreted through simultaneous multiwavelength observations Relatore/Supervisor: Candidato/Candidate: Dr. Antonio Stamerra Giacomo Bonnoli Tutore/Tutor: Prof. Riccardo Paoletti Ph.D. School in Physics Cycle XXI December 2010 Abstract In the framework of Astroparticle Physics the understanding of the particle acceleration process and related high energy electromagnetic emission within astrophysical sources is an issue of fundamental importance to unravel the structure and evolution of many classes of celestial objects, on different scales from micro{quasars to active galactic nuclei. This has an important role not only for astrophysics itself, but for many related topics of cosmic ray physics and High Energy physics, such as the search for dark matter. Also cosmology is interested, as deepening our knowledge on Active Galactic Nuclei and their interaction with the environment can help to clarify open issues on the formation of cosmic structures and evolution of universe on large scales. The present view on sources emitting high energy radiation is now gaining new insight thanks to multiwavelength observations. This approach allows to explore the spectral energy distribution of the sources all across the electromagnetic spectrum, therefore granting the best achievable understanding of the physical processes that originate the radiation that we see, and their mutual relationships. Our theories model the sources in terms of parameters that can be inferred from the observables quantities measured, and the multiwavelength observations are a key instrument in order to rule out or support some selected models out of the many that compete in the effort of describing the processes at work. Amongst the various instruments, VHE and X{ray telescopes play a crucial role, as these bands sample the most energetic and variable part or the spectrum of this kind of source, likely related to the high energy tail of the particle distribution that produce the emission and therefore the most sensitive probe currently at hand for the study of the relativistic jets in Active Galactic Nuclei. The variability on scales of hours and below observed in the high energy band imposes to perform simultaneous multiwavelength campaigns, ensuring that all the observations refer to an unique state of the source and thus fully constrain the broadband emission model. Such an approach has been first exploited in the seminal work by Maraschi et al. (1999) on the Active Galactic Nucleus Markarian 421, and hereinafter has been followed by other authors with different instruments. The increased sensitivity of present generation of ground{based Very High Energy γ{ray detectors allows to explore the hourly or even sub{hour variability, and the correlation with measurements at lower ii energies, with unprecedented accuracy. This thesis reports on the multiwavelength campaigns on two different blazars, OJ 287 and Markarian 421, involving instruments sensitive in the optical, UV, X{ray and γ{ray bands. The detection of Mrk 421 with the Cherenkov telescope MAGIC has been used to derive the physical proper- ties of the emission in the jet and fully constrain the homogeneous leptonic Synchrotron Self{Compton model proposed by Tavecchio et al. (1998). The results achievable from such broadband observations with the present in- struments are outlined. This research has been carried on during my PhD studentship at Uni- versit`adegli Studi di Siena, working within the research group of the De- partment of Physics led by Professor Riccardo Paoletti and involved in the MAGIC Collaboration. The MAGIC Collaboration is an international con- sortium of Universities and Research Institutes, mostly European, with rel- evant contribution by German, Italian, Spanish and Swiss institutes. The Collaboration, gathering ∼ 200 scientists and technicians from all over the world, planned, built and currently runs a frontier experiment in the field of Gamma{ray Astronomy, based at the time of the observations studied here on a 17 meter wide, single dish Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescope, that is currently sided by a twin telescope, MAGIC-II, and forms with it an Imag- ing Air Cherenkov stereo system. The telescope, capable of observing from the ground γ{rays with energies in the approximate range 0.1{10 TeV, is located in the Canary Island of La Palma and since 2004 is used by the Col- laboration itself to perform observations of known or potential astrophysical sources of γ{rays, delivering to the scientific community original knowledge relevant to astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics. After a brief, general introduction to the field of High Energy Astron- omy (Chapter 1), the Active Galactic Nuclei are introduced and summa- rized, and the subclass of blazars is described (Chapter 2), together with the models of their emission mechanism assumed in this work and their con- nection with observations in the VHE band (Chapter 3). Then the Imaging Air Cherenkov detection technique (Chapter 4) and the MAGIC telescope (Chapter 5) are reviewed, and the data analysis chain used for extracting from the raw data the physically relevant results is presented in some de- tail (Chapter 6). Then the observational campaigns on the blazars OJ 287 (Chapter 7) and Mrk 421 (Chapter 8) are summarized, the MAGIC results reported together with the data obtained in the other bands, and the mod- eling of the sources allowed by these datasets is presented and discussed. In the last chapter the results are reviewed and some general conclusions are derived. iii Contents 1 Very High Energy Astronomy 1 1.1 Cosmic rays . 1 1.1.1 Why photons? . 5 1.2 Instruments for γ{ray astronomy with photons . 5 1.2.1 Interaction processes of photons with matter . 5 1.2.2 Satellites for HE: CGRO/EGRET and Fermi/LAT . 6 1.2.3 Ground telescopes for VHE γ rays . 8 1.2.4 Examples of IACT . 9 1.2.5 The VHE sky . 11 2 Active Galactic Nuclei 13 2.1 Stars, galaxies, and something else . 13 2.2 Active Galactic Nuclei . 18 2.2.1 Emission lines in optical spectra of AGN . 18 2.2.2 Radioloud vs. Radioquiet AGN . 19 2.2.3 Radioloudness and jets . 19 2.2.4 Other categories: a bit of AGN taxonomy . 20 2.3 The AGN unified model . 21 2.3.1 Structure of the central engine . 21 2.4 Blazars .............................. 25 2.4.1 FSRQ and BL Lacs . 26 2.5 Spectral Energy Distribution of blazars . 26 2.5.1 The blazar sequence . 27 3 Physics in blazars 30 3.1 Particle acceleration in the jet . 30 3.2 Relativistic effects in blazars ................... 30 3.2.1 \Superluminal" motion in jets and its consequences . 31 3.2.2 Doppler factor . 31 3.3 Emission Models . 32 3.3.1 Hadronic models . 33 3.3.2 Leptonic models . 34 3.3.3 Inhomogeneous models . 36 iv 3.3.4 The blazar sequence interpreted through emission mod- els . 37 3.4 Some general constraints to models and parameters. 37 3.5 The simplest SSC . 38 3.5.1 Basic picture of the model and relevant parameters . 38 3.5.2 Observational parameters . 40 3.5.3 Synchrotron emission . 41 3.5.4 Inverse Compton emission . 42 3.6 Model parameters and observations . 43 3.7 Opacity of universe at GeV-TeV energies . 45 4 Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes 49 4.1 Imaging Air Cherenkov technique . 49 4.2 Extended Air Showers . 50 4.2.1 Electromagnetic cascades . 50 4.2.2 Hadronic cascades . 53 4.3 Cherenkov radiation . 53 4.4 Principle of imaging detection of EAS . 55 4.4.1 Cascade progenitors and shower images . 56 4.5 Key Features of an Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescope . 57 4.5.1 Energy Threshold . 57 4.5.2 Evolution of the performance with the zenith angle . 58 5 The MAGIC{I Telescope 60 5.0.3 The MAGIC collaboration . 60 5.0.4 Telescope site . 61 5.1 The telescope structure . 62 5.1.1 The frame . 62 5.1.2 The mirror . 64 5.2 The camera . 65 5.3 The trigger system . 67 5.3.1 Level 0 . 68 5.3.2 Level 1 . 68 5.3.3 Level 2 . 69 5.4 Digitalization and data storage . 69 5.5 Telescope operation . 70 5.5.1 Shifts . 70 5.5.2 Schedule . 71 5.5.3 Good observing conditions . 72 5.5.4 Standard datataking queue . 73 5.5.5 Tracking modes . 74 v 6 Analysis of MAGIC data 77 6.1 Fundamental steps . 77 6.2 Analysis chain . 77 6.3 Simulated γ-events . 78 6.3.1 Air shower simulation . 79 6.3.2 Reflector simulation . 80 6.3.3 Camera simulation . 81 6.4 Calibration . 82 6.4.1 Signal extraction . 82 6.4.2 Conversion to photo{electrons . 83 6.5 Image Cleaning . 84 6.5.1 Absolute Cleaning . 84 6.5.2 Time Cleaning . 84 6.5.3 Moon time cleaning . 85 6.6 Image parameters . 85 6.6.1 Source independent parameters . 85 6.6.2 Source dependent parameters . 88 6.6.3 Time parameters . 89 6.6.4 Filter cuts . 90 6.7 γ/hadron separation . 90 6.7.1 Classification methods . 91 6.7.2 Random Forest method . 91 6.7.3 Resizing and Rezenithing of the hadron sample . 95 6.7.4 Choice of parameters relevant for the classification . 96 6.7.5 Classification test . 97 6.8 Signal identification . 97 6.8.1 Significance of the excess . 99 6.9 Sensitivity . 100 6.10 Energy Estimation . 101 6.10.1 Energy threshold . 102 6.11 Spectrum calculation . 103 6.11.1 Unfolding . 105 6.11.2 Upper limits . 106 6.12 Light curves .