Photometric Monitoring of Blazar 3C 66A with the Yunnan University Astronomical Observatory 1 m Telescope

3C 66A is one of our first batches of photometric monitoring objects with the 1 m optical telescope at Yunnan University Astronomical Observatory.In the present work,the observational campaign was performed from 2021 November 1 to 2022 February 27 in the Johnson-Morgan system V and R bands.The average magnitudes in each band were■=15.52±0.18 mag and■=15.07±0.17 mag.The overall variability amplitudes wereΔV=■,Amp=70.27%andΔR=■,Amp=68.56%,respectively.Most of the intraday variabilities(IDVs)occurred in 2021 December and 2022 February.The minimal rise/decay timescale was about 6 minutes(5.82±2.74 minutes and 6.18±2.81 minutes on 2022 February 11,6.99±3.70 minutes and 6.17±2.91 minutes on 2022 February 12).Durations of these rapid variabilities were from 11.99 to 179.67 minutes.The discrete correlation function analyses between V and R bands showed significantly correlated variability.Color index analysis of ID Vs showed that the spectrums do not change with variabilities.

Optical quasi-periodic oscillation and color behavior of blazar PKS 2155–304

PKS 2155-304 is a well studied BL Lac object in the southern sky. The historical optical data during different periods have been collected and compiled. Light curves spanning 35 yr have been constructed. The R-band light curve has been ana- lyzed by means of three methods： the epoch folding method, the Jurkevich method and the discrete correlation function method. It is derived that there is an evident periodic component of 317 d （i.e. 0.87 yr） superposed on a long-term trend with large- amplitude variation in the light curve. The variability of this source is accompanied by a slight color variation, and the brightness and color index are correlated with each other. On a long-term time scale, PKS 2155-304 exhibits a tendency of bluer-when- brighter, which means the spectrum becomes flatter when the source brightens.

Multi-band optical variability of BL Lac object OQ 530

Historical optical data are combined on the BL Lac object OQ 530. Verifying the existence of correlations among the flux variations in different bands serves as an important tool to investigate emission processes. To examine the possible existence of a lag between variations in different optical bands from this source, a statistical analysis is performed through the discrete correlation function （DCF） method and the z-transformed discrete correlation function （ZDCF） method. Monte Carlo simulations called ＂flux redistribution/random subset selection＂ （FR/RSS） are performed to obtain statistically meaningful values for the cross-correlation time lags and their related uncertainties. The analysis confirms that the variations in different optical light curves are strongly correlated, with zero-lag within the errors. Long term variability of color indexes is also analyzed. The result suggests a strong correlation between color index and brightness. A clear bluer-when-brighter chromatism is found, in the sense that the spectrum steepens as the brightness decreases.

Long-term multi-wavelength variations of Fermi blazar 3C 279

Long-term optical,X-ray and γ-ray data of blazar 3 C 279 have been compiled from Swift-XRT,RXTE-PCA,Fermi-LAT,SMARTS and literature.The source exhibits strong variability on long timescales.From the 1980 s until now,the optical R band light curve spans more than 32 yr,and a possible 5.6-yr-long quasi-periodic variation component has been found in it.The optical spectral behavior has been investigated.In the optical band,the mean spectral index is –1.71.The source exhibits an obvious special spectral behavior.In the low state,the source manifests a clear bluer-when-brighter behavior in the sense that the optical spectrum turns harder(flatter) when the brightness increases.While in the high state,the optical spectrum is stable,which means the source spectral index does not vary with brightness.The correlation analysis has been performed among optical,X-ray and γ-ray energy bands.The result indicates that the variations of γ-ray and X-ray bands are well correlated without time delay on the timescale of days,and their variations exhibit weak correlations with those of the optical band.The variations,especially outbursts,are simultaneous,but the magnitude of variations is disproportionate.The detailed analysis reveals that the main outbursts exhibit strong correlations in different γ-ray,X-ray and optical bands.

Long-term optical-infrared color variability of blazars

The long-term optical and infrared color variability of blazars has been investigated with monitoring data from the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System（SMARTS）. The sample in this study consists of 49 flat spectrum radio quasars（FSRQs） and 22 BL Lacertae objects（BL Lacs）. The fractional variability amplitudes of each source have been calculated in both optical R band and infrared J band. Overall, the variability amplitudes of FSRQs are larger than those of BL Lacs. The results also suggest that the variability amplitude of most FSRQs is larger at a lower energy band（J band） than at a higher one（R band）, but the variability amplitude of BL Lacs is larger at the higher energy band. Both types of blazars display color variation along with variability in brightness. However, they show different variation behaviors in general. In the whole data set, 35 FSRQs exhibit redder-whenbrighter trends, and 11 FSRQs exhibit opposite trends; 11 BL Lacs follow bluer-whenbrighter trends, and seven BL Lacs follow opposite trends. A detailed examination indicates that there are 10 blazars showing redder-when-brighter trends in their low state, and bluer-when-brighter or stable-when-brighter trends in their high state. Some more complicated color behaviors have also been detected in several blazars. The nonthermal jet emission and the thermal emission from the accretion disk are employed to explain the observed color behaviors.

Multi-wavelength emission from 3C 66A: clues to its redshift and gamma-ray emission location

The quasi-simultaneous multi-wavelength emission of TeV blazar 3C 66A is studied by using a one-zone multi-component leptonic jet model. It is found that the quasi-simultaneous spectral energy distribution of 3C 66A can be well reproduced; in particular, the first three months of its average Fermi-LAT spectrum can be well reproduced by the synchrotron self-Compton component plus external Compton component of the broad line region （BLR）. Clues to its redshift and gamma-ray emission location are obtained. The results indicate the following. （i） On the redshift： The theoretical intrinsic TeV spectra can be predicted by extrapolating the reproduced GeV spectra. Through comparing these extrapolated TeV spectra with the corrected observed TeV spectra from extragalactic background light, it is suggested that the redshift of 3C 66A could be between 0.1 and 0.3, with the most likely value being ~ 0.2. （ii） On the gamma-ray emission location： To well reproduce the GeV emission of 3C 66A under different assumptions on the BLR, the gamma-ray emission region is always required to be beyond the inner zone of the BLR. The BLR absorption effect on gamma-ray emission confirms this point.

Evolution of optical spectral index and variability properties of S5 0716+714

We analyze the spectral variability and spectral evolution in the optical en- ergy region by using multiband （BVRI） optical observations of S5 0716＋714 spanning 1994 to 2005. The spectrum hardens when the source becomes brighter, which is con- sistent with general BL Lac objects. The spectral evolution parameter implies that the spectral variability is small in optical bands over 10 years. A simple model represent- ing the variability of a synchrotron component can explain the spectral changes. In addition, we employ the z-transformed discrete correlation function （ZDCF） to ana- lyze the optical multiband flux correlation. The long-term light curve behavior reveals that the variability time scales are 3.5 yr in the B-band, 3.3 yr in the V-band, 3.4 yr in the R-band and 3.5 yr in the/-band. The time lags between any two optical bands were not found when considering statistical errors.