Simultaneous Millimeter-wave, Gamma-Ray, and Optical Monitoring of the Blazar PKS 2326-502 during a Flaring State

Hood II, J. C. and Simpson, A. and McDaniel, A. and Foster, A. and Ade, P. A. R. and Ajello, M. and Anderson, A. J. and Austermann, J. E. and Beall, J. A. and Bender, A. N. and Benson, B. A. and Bianchini, F. and Bleem, L. E. and Carlstrom, J. E. and Chang, C. L. and Chaubal, P. and Chiang, H. C. and Chou, T-L. and Citron, R. and Moran, C. Corbett and Crawford, T. M. and Crites, A. T. and de Haan, T. and Dobbs, M. A. and Everett, W. and Gallicchio, J. and George, E. M. and Gupta, N. and Halverson, N. W. and Hilton, G. C. and Holder, G. P. and Holzapfel, W. L. and Hrubes, J. D. and Huang, N. and Hubmayr, J. and Irwin, K. D. and Knox, L. and Lee, A. T. and Li, D. and Lowitz, A. and Madejski, G. and Malkan, M. and McMahon, J. J. and Meyer, S. S. and Montgomery, J. and Natoli, T. and Nibarger, J. P. and Noble, G. and Novosad, V. and Omori, Y. and Padin, S. and Patil, S. and Pryke, C. and Reichardt, C. L. and Ruhl, J. E. and Saliwanchik, B. R. and Schaffer, K. K. and Sievers, C. and Smecher, G. and Stark, A. A. and Tucker, C. and Veach, T. and Vieira, J. D. and Wang, G. and Whitehorn, N. and Wu, W. L. K. and Yefremenko, V. and Zebrowski, J. A. and Zhang, L. (2023) Simultaneous Millimeter-wave, Gamma-Ray, and Optical Monitoring of the Blazar PKS 2326-502 during a Flaring State. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 945 (2). L23. ISSN 2041-8205

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Abstract

Including millimeter-wave data in multiwavelength studies of the variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN) can provide insights into AGN physics that are not easily accessible at other wavelengths. We demonstrate in this work the potential of cosmic microwave background (CMB) telescopes to provide long-term, high-cadence millimeter-wave AGN monitoring over large fractions of sky. We report on a pilot study using data from the SPTpol instrument on the South Pole Telescope (SPT), which was designed to observe the CMB at arcminute and larger angular scales. Between 2013 and 2016, SPTpol was used primarily to observe a single 500 deg2 field, covering the entire field several times per day with detectors sensitive to radiation in bands centered at 95 and 150 GHz. We use SPT 150 GHz observations to create AGN light curves, and we compare these millimeter-wave light curves to those at other wavelengths, in particular γ-ray and optical. In this Letter, we focus on a single source, PKS 2326-502, which has extensive, day-timescale monitoring data in gamma-ray, optical, and now millimeter-wave between 2013 and 2016. We find PKS 2326-502 to be in a flaring state in the first 2 yr of this monitoring, and we present a search for evidence of correlated variability between millimeter-wave, optical R-band, and γ-ray observations. This pilot study is paving the way for AGN monitoring with current and upcoming CMB experiments such as SPT-3G, Simons Observatory, and CMB-S4, including multiwavelength studies with facilities such as Vera C. Rubin Observatories Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: Eprints STM archive > Physics and Astronomy
Depositing User: Unnamed user with email admin@eprints.stmarchive
Date Deposited: 25 Apr 2023 09:43
Last Modified: 15 Jan 2024 04:26
URI: http://public.paper4promo.com/id/eprint/115

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