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In this work we try to search for signals generated by ultra-heavy dark matter at the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) data. We look for possible gamma-ray by dark matter annihilation or decay from 16 dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the field of view of LHAASO. Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are among the most promising targets for indirect detection of dark matter which have low fluxes of astrophysical $\gamma$-ray background while large amount of dark matter. By analyzing more than 700 days observational data at LHAASO, no significant dark matter signal from 1 TeV to 1 EeV is detected. Accordingly we derive the most stringent constraints on the ultra-heavy dark matter annihilation cross-section up to EeV. The constraints on the lifetime of dark matter in decay mode are also derived., Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, accepted by PRL

The KM2A is the largest sub-array of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). It consists of 5216 electromagnetic particle detectors (EDs) and 1188 muon detectors (MDs). The data recorded by the EDs and MDs are used to reconstruct primary information of cosmic ray and gamma-ray showers. This information is used for physical analysis in gamma-ray astronomy and cosmic ray physics. To ensure the reliability of the LHAASO-KM2A data, a three-level quality control system has been established. It is used to monitor the status of detector units, stability of reconstructed parameters and the performance of the array based on observations of the Crab Nebula and Moon shadow. This paper will introduce the control system and its application on the LHAASO-KM2A data collected from August 2021 to July 2023. During this period, the pointing and angular resolution of the array were stable. From the observations of the Moon shadow and Crab Nebula, the results achieved using the two methods are consistent with each other. According to the observation of the Crab Nebula at energies from 25 TeV to 100 TeV, the time averaged pointing errors are estimated to be $-0.003^{\circ} \pm 0.005^{\circ}$ and $0.001^{\circ} \pm 0.006^{\circ}$ in the R.A. and Dec directions, respectively., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures

The first source catalog of Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory reported the detection of a very-high-energy gamma ray source, 1LHAASO J1219+2915. In this paper a further detailed study of the spectral and temporal behavior of this point-like source have been carried. The best-fit position of the TeV source ($\rm{RA}=185.05^{\circ}\pm0.04^{\circ}$, $\rm{Dec}=29.25^{\circ}\pm0.03^{\circ}$) is compatible with NGC 4278 within $\sim0.03$ degree. Variation analysis shows an indication of the variability at a few months level in the TeV band, which is consistent with low frequency observations. Based on these observations, we report the detection of TeV $\gamma$-ray emissions from this low-luminosity AGN NGC 4278. The observations by LHAASO-WCDA during active period has a significance level of 8.8\,$\sigma$ with best-fit photon spectral index $\varGamma=2.56\pm0.14$ and a flux $f_{1-10\,\rm{TeV}}=(7.0\pm1.1_{\rm{sta}}\pm0.35_{\rm{syst}})\times10^{-13}\,\rm{photons\,cm^{-2}\,s^{-1}}$, or approximately $5\%$ of the Crab Nebula. The discovery of VHE from NGC 4278 indicates that the compact, weak radio jet can efficiently accelerate particles and emit TeV photons., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures

KM2A is one of the main sub-arrays of LHAASO, working on gamma ray astronomy and cosmic ray physics at energies above 10 TeV. Detector simulation is the important foundation for estimating detector performance and data analysis. It is a big challenge to simulate the KM2A detector in the framework of Geant4 due to the need to track numerous photons from a large number of detector units (>6000) with large altitude difference (30 m) and huge coverage (1.3 km^2). In this paper, the design of the KM2A simulation code G4KM2A based on Geant4 is introduced. The process of G4KM2A is optimized mainly in memory consumption to avoid memory overffow. Some simpliffcations are used to signiffcantly speed up the execution of G4KM2A. The running time is reduced by at least 30 times compared to full detector simulation. The particle distributions and the core/angle resolution comparison between simulation and experimental data of the full KM2A array are also presented, which show good agreement.

We present the measurements of all-particle energy spectrum and mean logarithmic mass of cosmic rays in the energy range of 0.3-30 PeV using data collected from LHAASO-KM2A between September 2021 and December 2022, which is based on a nearly composition-independent energy reconstruction method, achieving unprecedented accuracy. Our analysis reveals the position of the knee at $3.67 \pm 0.05 \pm 0.15$ PeV. Below the knee, the spectral index is found to be -$2.7413 \pm 0.0004 \pm 0.0050$, while above the knee, it is -$3.128 \pm 0.005 \pm 0.027$, with the sharpness of the transition measured with a statistical error of 2%. The mean logarithmic mass of cosmic rays is almost heavier than helium in the whole measured energy range. It decreases from 1.7 at 0.3 PeV to 1.3 at 3 PeV, representing a 24% decline following a power law with an index of -$0.1200 \pm 0.0003 \pm 0.0341$. This is equivalent to an increase in abundance of light components. Above the knee, the mean logarithmic mass exhibits a power law trend towards heavier components, which is reversal to the behavior observed in the all-particle energy spectrum. Additionally, the knee position and the change in power-law index are approximately the same. These findings suggest that the knee observed in the all-particle spectrum corresponds to the knee of the light component, rather than the medium-heavy components., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

For decades, supernova remnants (SNRs) have been considered the prime sources of Galactic Cosmic rays (CRs). But whether SNRs can accelerate CR protons to PeV energies and thus dominate CR flux up to the knee is currently under intensive theoretical and phenomenological debate. The direct test of the ability of SNRs to operate as CR PeVatrons can be provided by ultrahigh-energy (UHE; $E_\gamma \geq 100$~TeV) $\gamma$-rays. In this context, the historical SNR Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is considered one of the most promising target for UHE observations. This paper presents the observation of Cas A and its vicinity by the LHAASO KM2A detector. The exceptional sensitivity of LHAASO KM2A in the UHE band, combined with the young age of Cas A, enabled us to derive stringent model-independent limits on the energy budget of UHE protons and nuclei accelerated by Cas A at any epoch after the explosion. The results challenge the prevailing paradigm that Cas A-type SNRs are major suppliers of PeV CRs in the Milky Way., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, Accepted by the APJL

The highest energy gamma-rays from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have important implications for their radiation mechanism. Here we report for the first time the detection of gamma-rays up to 13 TeV from the brightest GRB 221009A by the Large High Altitude Air-shower Observatory (LHAASO). The LHAASO-KM2A detector registered more than 140 gamma-rays with energies above 3 TeV during 230$-$900s after the trigger. The intrinsic energy spectrum of gamma-rays can be described by a power-law after correcting for extragalactic background light (EBL) absorption. Such a hard spectrum challenges the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) scenario of relativistic electrons for the afterglow emission above several TeV. Observations of gamma-rays up to 13 TeV from a source with a measured redshift of z=0.151 hints more transparency in intergalactic space than previously expected. Alternatively, one may invoke new physics such as Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) or an axion origin of very high energy (VHE) signals., Comment: 49pages, 11figures

We present the first catalog of very-high energy and ultra-high energy gamma-ray sources detected by the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). The catalog was compiled using 508 days of data collected by the Water Cherenkov Detector Array (WCDA) from March 2021 to September 2022 and 933 days of data recorded by the Kilometer Squared Array (KM2A) from January 2020 to September 2022. This catalog represents the main result from the most sensitive large coverage gamma-ray survey of the sky above 1 TeV, covering declination from $-$20$^{\circ}$ to 80$^{\circ}$. In total, the catalog contains 90 sources with an extended size smaller than $2^\circ$ and a significance of detection at $> 5\sigma$. Based on our source association criteria, 32 new TeV sources are proposed in this study. Among the 90 sources, 43 sources are detected with ultra-high energy ($E > 100$ TeV) emission at $> 4\sigma$ significance level. We provide the position, extension, and spectral characteristics of all the sources in this catalog., Comment: 40 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables

The diffuse Galactic $\gamma$-ray emission, mainly produced via interactions between cosmic rays and the interstellar medium and/or radiation field, is a very important probe of the distribution, propagation, and interaction of cosmic rays in the Milky Way. In this work we report the measurements of diffuse $\gamma$-rays from the Galactic plane between 10 TeV and 1 PeV energies, with the square kilometer array of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). Diffuse emissions from the inner ($15^{\circ}10$~TeV). The energy spectrum in the inner Galaxy regions can be described by a power-law function with an index of $-2.99\pm0.04$, which is different from the curved spectrum as expected from hadronic interactions between locally measured cosmic rays and the line-of-sight integrated gas content. Furthermore, the measured flux is higher by a factor of $\sim3$ than the prediction. A similar spectrum with an index of $-2.99\pm0.07$ is found in the outer Galaxy region, and the absolute flux for $10\lesssim E\lesssim60$ TeV is again higher than the prediction for hadronic cosmic ray interactions. The latitude distributions of the diffuse emission are consistent with the gas distribution, while the longitude distributions show clear deviation from the gas distribution. The LHAASO measurements imply that either additional emission sources exist or cosmic ray intensities have spatial variations., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables; accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters; source mask file provided as ancillary file

The study of blazar jet has been performed for several decades via the VLBI technique, while its generation and propagation stay unclear. In the present work, we compiled a sample of 407 VLBI detected \textit{Fermi} blazars (VFBs) and studied the correlations between apparent velocity (${\rm log}\,\beta_{\rm app}$) and jet/accretion disk properties. We found a positive correlation between $\gamma$-ray luminosity (${\rm log}\,L_{\rm \gamma}$) and ${\rm log}\,\beta_{\rm app}$, the correlation suggests that the apparent motion of jet knot is related to the jet power., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables

In this work, we make use of a supervised machine learning algorithm based on Logistic Regression (LR) to select TeV blazar candidates from the 4FGL-DR2 / 4LAC-DR2, 3FHL, 3HSP, and 2BIGB catalogs. LR constructs a hyperplane based on a selection of optimal parameters, named features, and hyper-parameters whose values control the learning process and determine the values of features that a learning algorithm ends up learning, to discriminate TeV blazars from non-TeV blazars. In addition, it gives the probability (or logistic) that a source may be considered as a TeV blazar candidate. Non-TeV blazars with logistics greater than 80% are considered high-confidence TeV candidates. Using this technique, we identify 40 high-confidence TeV candidates from the 4FGL-DR2 / 4LAC-DR2 blazars and we build the feature hyper-plane to distinguish TeV and non-TeV blazars. We also calculate the hyper-planes for the 3FHL, 3HSP, and 2BIGB. Finally, we construct the broadband spectral energy distributions (SED) for the 40 candidates, testing for their detectability with various instruments. We find that 7 of them are likely to be detected by existing or upcoming IACT observatories, while 1 could be observed with EAS particle detector arrays.

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) has three sub-arrays, KM2A, WCDA and WFCTA. The flux variations of cosmic ray air showers were studied by analyzing the KM2A data during the thunderstorm on 10 June 2021. The number of shower events that meet the trigger conditions increases significantly in atmospheric electric fields, with maximum fractional increase of 20%. The variations of trigger rates (increases or decreases) are found to be strongly dependent on the primary zenith angle. The flux of secondary particles increases significantly, following a similar trend with that of the shower events. To better understand the observed behavior, Monte Carlo simulations are performed with CORSIKA and G4KM2A (a code based on GEANT4). We find that the experimental data (in saturated negative fields) are in good agreement with simulations, assuming the presence of a uniform upward electric field of 700 V/cm with a thickness of 1500 m in the atmosphere above the observation level. Due to the acceleration/deceleration and deflection by the atmospheric electric field, the number of secondary particles with energy above the detector threshold is modified, resulting in the changes in shower detection rate., Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures

Variability is a typical observation feature of Fermi blazars, sometimes it shows quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO). In this work, we obtained 5-day binned light curves (with a time coverage of $\sim$ 12.9 yr) for S5 1044+71 based on Fermi LAT data, adopted five different methods: Date-compensated Discrete Fourier Transform (DCDFT), Jurkevich (JV), Lomb-Scargle Periodogram (LSP), a Fortran 90 program (REDFIT) and the Weighted Wavelet Z-transform (WWZ) to the $\gamma$-ray light curve, and found a possible QPO of 3.06 $\pm$ 0.43 yr at the significance level of $\sim3.6\sigma$. A binary black hole model including accretion model and dual-jets model is used to explain this quasi-periodic variability. We also estimated the Doppler factors and the apparent velocity for the two jet components. We speculate that this $\gamma$-ray quasi-periodic modulation suggest the presence of a binary supermassive black hole in S5 1044+71., Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted by APJ

BL Lacs are one subclass of blazars with highly energetic $\gamma$-ray emission, which is strongly boosted by a relativistic beaming effect. The latest catalogue of the 10 years of {\it Fermi}/LAT data Abdollahi et al. (2020) and the $\gamma$-ray Doppler factors in Pei et al. (2020) provide us with a large BL Lac sample to study their jet emission morphologies and intrinsic properties. In this paper, we collected a sample of 294 {\it Fermi} BL Lacs and probed the correlations between the $\gamma$-ray emissions and luminosity distances. Our analyses give following conclusions: (1) the observed $\gamma$-ray emissions are really boosted by the $\gamma$-ray Doppler factor, and the intrinsic $\gamma$-ray emissions are closely correlated with luminosity distances. (2) the morphology of jet emissions for HBLs may be continuous, while that for IBLs may be the case of a moving sphere in the $\gamma$-ray bands., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables. Accepted by Ap&SS

The Crab pulsar and the surrounding nebula powered by the pulsar's rotational energy through the formation and termination of a relativistic electron-positron wind is a bright source of gamma-rays carrying crucial information about this complex conglomerate. We report the detection of $\gamma$-rays with a spectrum showing gradual steepening over three energy decades, from $5\times 10^{-4}$ to $1.1$ petaelectronvolt (PeV). The ultra-high-energy photons exhibit the presence of a PeV electron accelerator (a pevatron) with an acceleration rate exceeding 15% of the absolute theoretical limit. Assuming that unpulsed $\gamma$-rays are produced at the termination of the pulsar's wind, we constrain the pevatron's size, between $0.025$ and $0.1$ pc, and the magnetic field $\approx 110 \mu$G. The production rate of PeV electrons, $2.5 \times 10^{36}$ erg $\rm s^{-1}$, constitutes 0.5% of the pulsar's spin-down luminosity, although we do not exclude a non-negligible contribution of PeV protons to the production of the highest energy $\gamma$-rays., Comment: 43 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables; Published in Science

The Wide Field-of-View Cherenkov Telescope Array (WFCTA) and the Water Cherenkov Detector Arrays (WCDA) of LHAASO are designed to work in combination for measuring the energy spectra of various cosmic ray species over a very wide energy range from a few TeV to 10 PeV. The energy calibration of WCDA can be achieved with a proven technique of measuring the westward shift of the Moon shadow of galactic cosmic rays due to the geomagnetic field. This deflection angle $\Delta$ is inversely proportional to the energy of the cosmic rays. The precise measurements of the shifts by WCDA allows us to calibrate its energy scale for energies as high as 35 TeV. The energy scale measured by WCDA can be used to cross calibrate the energy reconstructed by WFCTA, which spans the whole energy range up to 10 PeV. In this work, we will demonstrate the feasibility of the method using the data collected from April 2019 to January 2020 by the WFCTA array and WCDA-1 detector, the first of the three water Cherenkov ponds, already commissioned at LHAASO site.

The focal plane camera is the core component of the Wide Field-of-view Cherenkov/fluorescence Telescope Array (WFCTA) of the Large High-Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). Because of the capability of working under moonlight without aging, silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) have been proven to be not only an alternative but also an improvement to conventional photomultiplier tubes (PMT) in this application. Eighteen SiPM-based cameras with square light funnels have been built for WFCTA. The telescopes have collected more than 100 million cosmic ray events and preliminary results indicate that these cameras are capable of working under moonlight. The characteristics of the light funnels and SiPMs pose challenges (e.g. dynamic range, dark count rate, assembly techniques). In this paper, we present the design features, manufacturing techniques and performances of these cameras. Finally, the test facilities, the test methods and results of SiPMs in the cameras are reported here., Comment: 45 pages, 21 figures, article

As a sub-array of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO), KM2A is mainly designed to cover a large fraction of the northern sky to hunt for gamma-ray sources at energies above 10 TeV. Even though the detector construction is still underway, a half of the KM2A array has been operating stably since the end of 2019. In this paper, we present the pipeline of KM2A data analysis and the first observation on the Crab Nebula, a standard candle in very high energy gamma-ray astronomy. We detect gamma-ray signals from the Crab Nebula in both energy ranges of 10$-$100 TeV and $>$100 TeV with high significance, by analyzing the KM2A data of 136 live days between December 2019 and May 2020. With the observations, we test the detector performance including angular resolution, pointing accuracy and cosmic ray background rejection power. The energy spectrum of the Crab Nebula in the energy range 10-250 TeV fits well with a single power-law function dN/dE =(1.13$\pm$0.05$_{stat}$$\pm$0.08$_{sys}$)$\times$10$^{-14}$$\cdot$(E/20TeV)$^{-3.09\pm0.06_{stat}\pm0.02_{sys}}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ TeV$^{-1}$. It is consistent with previous measurements by other experiments. This opens a new window of gamma-ray astronomy above 0.1 PeV through which ultrahigh-energy gamma-ray new phenomena, such as cosmic PeVatrons, might be discovered., Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures,submitted to CPC

We present a detailed study of 11 narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) from the Six-degree Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS) that both have optical and X-ray spectroscopic observations. There are five complex NLS1s (C-NLS1s) and six simple NLS1s (S-NLS1s). We propose a possible correlation between [O III] line asymmetry and X-ray complexity. The outflow or wind from the inner accretion disk is commonly present in NLS1s and mostly directed along the system axis. In C-NLS1s only weak wind effects are measured, the X-ray spectral complexity might be caused by the presence of ionized material in the wind. On the contrary, the wind in S-NLS1s is fast, the ionized material could be swept by such a strong wind, thus the complex feature is missing which results in a simple X-ray spectrum. Furthermore, this outflow scenario seems to be an inclination effect. Since the speed of the wind is higher in a small inclination while lower in a large inclination, S-NLS1s might be sources viewed at small angles while C-NLS1s might be sources viewed at large angles., Comment: Submitted to MNRAS. 10 pages, 6 figures, 7 tables

We present a new accurate sample of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) in the southern hemisphere from the Six-degree Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS). Based on the optical spectral features, 167 sources were classified as NLS1s. We derived flux-calibrated spectra in the sample for the first time. Strong luminosity correlations between the continuum and the emission lines were found. We estimated their central black hole masses and Eddington ratios, which are lying in a typical range of NLS1s. In the sample, 23 NLS1s were detected at radio frequencies and 12 of them are radio-loud. We publish the X-ray data analysis of a campaign of observations carried out by the Swift X-ray Telescope., Comment: Conference paper

Thanks to the execution of extensive spectroscopic surveys that have covered large fractions of the sky down to magnitudes as faint as $i \approx 19$, it has been possible to identify several narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) and to investigate their properties over a large range of the electro-magnetic spectrum. The interpretation of their nature, however, is still hampered by the statistical uncertainties related to the way in which NLS1 candidates are selected. In this contribution, we present a study to detect and to model emission lines in optical spectra extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), adopting the most proper strategy to identify the source of line excitation and to produce a detailed model with measurements of several emission-line parameters. We demonstrate the application of this technique to explore fundamental questions, such as the presence of gas and dust around the core of AGNs and the spectral energy distribution of their ionizing radiation. We compare the spectral properties of NLS1s with those of other type 1 active galaxies and we summarize the potential of this approach to identify NLS1s in present day and future spectroscopic surveys. We finally consider the implications of multi-frequency data analysis in the debate concerning the intrinsic nature of NLS1s., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures (2 color figures), proceedings of the conference "Revisiting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies and their place in the Universe", accepted for publication on Proceedings of Science

In this work, we collected a sample of 69 TeV blazars from TeVCat, obtained their multi-wavelength observations, and fitted their spectral energy distributions by using the second degree polynomial function. The structure parameters of the synchrotron bumps for 68 blazars and those of the inverse-Compton bumps for 56 blzars are obtained. Then, we adopted statistical analysis to the parameters (curvature, peak frequency, peak luminosity, bolometric luminosity, and X/$\gamma$-ray spectral indexes). From our analysis and discussions, we can get following conclusions: 1. There is a clear positive correlation between the synchrotron peak frequency, $\log \nu_p^s$, and the inverse-Compton peak frequency $\log \nu_p^{IC}$, and that between the synchrotron peak luminosity, $\log \nu_p^s L_p^s$, and the inverse-Compton peak luminosity, $\log \nu_p^{IC}L_p^{IC}$. 2. The correlation between the peak frequency and the curvature of synchrotron bump is clearly different from that of the inverse-Compton bump, which further indicates that there are different emission mechanisms between them. 3. There is a correlation between $\log \nu_p^{IC}$ and $\gamma$-ray spectral index, $\alpha_\gamma$, for the TeV blazars: $\log \nu^{IC}_p = -(4.59 \pm 0.30) \alpha_\gamma + (32.67 \pm 0.59)$, which is consistent with previous work of Abdo et al.(2010). 4. An "L-shape" relation is found between $\log \nu^s_p$ and $\alpha_X$ for both TeV blazars and Fermi blazars. A significant correlation between $\log \nu^s_p$ and X-ray photon index ($\alpha_X$) is found for the TeV blazars with high synchrotron peak frequency: $\log \nu^{s}_{p} = -(3.20 \pm 0.34) \alpha_X + (24.33 \pm 0.79)$, while the correlation is positive for low synchrotron peaked TeV sources. 5. In the $\alpha_X-\alpha_\gamma$ diagram, there is also an "L-shape", the anti-correlation is consistent with the available results in the literature, (...)

We present a new accurate catalog of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) in the southern hemisphere from the Six-degree Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS) final data release, which is currently the most extensive spectroscopic survey available in the southern sky whose database has not yet been systematically explored. We classified 167 sources as NLS1s based on their optical spectral properties. We derived flux-calibrated spectra for the first time that the 6dFGS indeed does not provide. By analyzing these spectra, we obtained strong correlations between the monochromatic luminosity at 5100 A and the luminosity of Hbeta and [O III]5007 lines. The estimated central black hole mass and Eddington ratio have an average value of 8.6 x 10^6 M_Sun and 0.96 L_Edd respectively, which is a typical value for NLS1s. In the sample, 23 (13.8%) NLS1s were detected at radio frequencies, and 12 (7.0%) of them are radio-loud. Our results confirmed that radio-loud sources tend to have a higher redshift, more massive black hole, and higher radio and optical luminosity than radio-quiet sources., Comment: Publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We present a multi-wavelength spectral and temporal analysis of the blazar OJ 287 during its recent activity between December 2015 -- May 2016, showing strong variability in the near-infrared (NIR) to X-ray energies with detection at $\gamma$-ray energies as well. Most of the optical flux variations exhibit strong changes in polarization angle and degree. All the inter-band time lags are consistent with simultaneous emissions. Interestingly, on days with excellent data coverage in the NIR--UV bands, the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) show signatures of bumps in the visible--UV bands, never seen before in this source. The optical bump can be explained as accretion-disk emission associated with the primary black hole of mass $\sim \rm 1.8 \times10^{10} M_{\odot}$ while the little bump feature in the optical-UV appears consistent with line emission. Further, the broadband SEDs extracted during the first flare and during a quiescent period during this span show very different $\gamma$-ray spectra compared to previously observed flare or quiescent spectra. The probable thermal bump in the visible seems to have been clearly present since May 2013, as found by examining all available NIR-optical observations, and favors the binary super-massive black hole model. The simultaneous multi-wavelength variability and relatively weak $\gamma$-ray emission that shows a shift in the SED peak is consistent with $\gamma$-ray emission originating from inverse Compton scattering of photons from the line emission that apparently contributes to the little blue bump., Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, MNRAS in press

Beaming effect is important for the observational properties of blazars. In this work, we collect 91 $Fermi$ blazars with available radio Doppler factors. $\gamma$-ray Doppler factors are estimated and compared with radio Doppler factors for some sources. The intrinsic (de-beamed) $\gamma$-ray flux density ($f^{\rm in}_{\gamma}$), intrinsic $\gamma$-ray luminosity ($L^{\rm in}_{\gamma}$), and intrinsic synchrotron peak frequency ($\nu_{\rm p}^{\rm in}$) are calculated. Then we study the correlations between $f^{\rm in}_{\gamma}$ and redshift and find that they follow the theoretical relation: $\log f = -2.0 \log z + {\rm const}$. When the subclasses are considered, we find that stationary jets are perhaps dominant in low synchrotron peaked blazars. 63 $Fermi$ blazars with both available short variability time scales ($\Delta T$) and Doppler factors are also collected. We find that the intrinsic relationship between $L ^{\rm in}_{\gamma}$ and $\Delta T^{\rm in}$ obeys the Elliot \& Shapiro and the Abramowicz \& Nobili relations. Strong positive correlation between $f_{\gamma}^{\rm in}$ and $\nu_{\rm p}^{\rm in}$ is found, suggesting that synchrotron emissions are highly correlated with $\gamma$-ray emissions., Comment: Accepted by Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (RAA)

Blazars are an extreme subclass of active galactic nuclei. Their rapid variability, luminous brightness, superluminal motion, and high and variable polarization are probably due to a beaming effect. However, this beaming factor (or Doppler factor) is very difficult to measure. Currently, a good way to estimate it is to use the time scale of their radio flares. In this $Letter$, we use multiwavelength data and Doppler factors reported in the literatures for a sample of 86 flaring blazars detected by Fermi to compute their intrinsic multiwavelength data and intrinsic spectral energy distributions, and investigate the correlations among observed and intrinsic data. Quite interestingly, intrinsic data show a positive correlation between luminosity and peak frequency, in contrast with the behavior of observed data, and a tighter correlation between $\gamma$-ray luminosity and the lower energy ones. For flaring blazars detected by Fermi, we conclude that (1) Observed emissions are strongly beamed; (2) The anti-correlation between luminosity and peak frequency from the observed data is an apparent result, the correlation between intrinsic data being positive; and (3) Intrinsic $\gamma$-ray luminosity is strongly correlated with other intrinsic luminosities., Comment: published

Variability is one of the extreme observational properties of BL Lacertae objects. AO 0235+164 is a well studied BL Lac through the whole electro-magnetic wavebands. In the present work, we show its optical R band photometric observations carried out during the period of Nov, 2006 to Dec. 2012 using the Ap6E CCD camera attached to the primary focus of the $\rm 70-cm$ meniscus telescope at Abastumani Observatory, Georgia. It shows a large variation of $\Delta R$ = 4.88 mag (14.19 - 19.07 mag) and a short time scale of $\Delta T_v$ = 73.5 min during our monitoring period. During the period of Dec. 2006 to Nov. 2009, we made radio observations of the source using the 25-m radio telescope at Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory. When a discrete correlation function (DCF) is adopted to the optical and radio observations, we found that the optical variation leads the radio variation by 23.2$\pm$12.9 days., Comment: Accepted by ApJ

We present recent optical photometric observations of the blazar OJ 287 taken during September 2015 -- May 2016. Our intense observations of the blazar started in November 2015 and continued until May 2016 and included detection of the large optical outburst in December 2016 that was predicted using the binary black hole model for OJ 287. For our observing campaign, we used a total of 9 ground based optical telescopes of which one is in Japan, one is in India, three are in Bulgaria, one is in Serbia, one is in Georgia, and two are in the USA. These observations were carried out in 102 nights with a total of ~ 1000 image frames in BVRI bands, though the majority were in the R band. We detected a second comparably strong flare in March 2016. In addition, we investigated multi-band flux variations, colour variations, and spectral changes in the blazar on diverse timescales as they are useful in understanding the emission mechanisms. We briefly discuss the possible physical mechanisms most likely responsible for the observed flux, colour and spectral variability., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables; Accepted for publication in MNRAS

(Abridged) In this paper, multi-wavelength data are compiled for a sample of 1425 Fermi blazars to calculate their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). A parabolic function, $\log(\nu F_{\nu}) = P_1(\log\nu - P_2)^2 + P_3,$ is used for SED fitting. Synchrotron peak frequency ($\log \nu_p$), spectral curvature ($P_1$), peak flux ($\nu_{\rm p}F_{\rm \nu_p}$), and integrated flux ($\nu F_{\nu}$) are successfully obtained for 1392 blazars (461 flat spectrum radio quasars-FSRQs, 620 BL Lacs-BLs and 311 blazars of uncertain type-BCUs, 999 sources have known redshifts). Monochromatic luminosity at radio 1.4 GHz, optical R band, X-ray at 1 keV and $\gamma$-ray at 1 GeV, peak luminosity, integrated luminosity and effective spectral indexes of radio to optical ($\alpha_{\rm RO}$), and optical to X-ray ($\alpha_{\rm OX}$) are calculated. The "Bayesian classification" is employed to log$\nu_{\rm p}$ in the rest frame for 999 blazars with available redshift and the results show that 3 components are enough to fit the $\log\nu_{\rm p}$ distribution, there is no ultra high peaked subclass. Based on the 3 components, the subclasses of blazars using the acronyms of Abdo et al. (2010a) are classified, and some mutual correlations are also studied. Conclusions are finally drawn as follows: (1) SEDs are successfully obtained for 1392 blazars. The fitted peak frequencies are compared with common sources from samples available (Sambruna et al. 1996, Nieppola et al. 2006, 2008, Abdo et al. 2010a). (2) Blazars are classified as low synchrotron peak sources (LSPs) if $\log\nu_{\rm p}$(Hz) $\leq 14.0$, intermediate synchrotron peak sources (ISPs) if $14.0 < \log\nu_{\rm p}$(Hz) $\leq 15.3$, and high synchrotron peak sources (HSPs) if $\log\nu_{\rm p}$(Hz) $> 15.3$. (3) $\gamma$-ray emissions are strongly correlated with radio emissions. (...), Comment: ApJS accepted

BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs) is the dominant population of TeV emitting blazars. In this work, we investigate whether there is any special observational properties for TeV sources. To do so, we will compare the observational properties of TeV detected BL Lacs (TeV BLs) and non-TeV detected BL Lac objects (non-TeV BLs). From the 3rd $Fermi$/LAT catalog (3FGL), we can get 662 BL Lacs, out of which, 47 are TeV BLs and 615 are non-TeV BLs. Their multi-wavelength flux densities ($F_{\rm R}$, $F_{\rm O}$, $F_{\rm X}$, $F_{\gamma}$), photon spectral indexes ($\alpha_{\rm X}^{\rm ph}$, $\alpha_{\gamma}^{\rm ph}$), and effective spectral indexes ($\alpha_{\rm RO}$ and $\alpha_{\rm OX}$) are compiled from the available literatures. Then the luminosities ($\log\,{\nu}L_{\rm R}$, $\log\,{\nu}L_{\rm O}$, $\log\,{\nu}L_{\rm X}$, $\log\,{\nu}L_{\gamma}$) are calculated. From comparisons, we found that TeV BLs are different from low-synchrotron-peaked BLs (LSP) and intermediate-synchrotron-peaked BLs (ISP), but TeV BLs show similar properties as high-synchrotron-peaked BLs (HSP). Therefore, we concentrated on comparison between TeV HSP BLs and non-TeV HSP BLs. Analysis results suggest that TeV HSP BLs and non-TeV HSP BLs show some differences in their $\alpha_{\rm RO}$ and $\alpha_{\gamma}^{\rm ph}$, while their other properties are quite similar.

We analyzed the multi-band optical behaviour of the BL Lacertae object, S5 0716+714, during its outburst state from 2014 November - 2015 March. We took data on 23 nights at three observatories, one in India and two in Bulgaria, making quasi-simultaneous observations in B, V, R, and I bands. We measured multi-band optical fluxes, colour and spectral variations for this blazar on intraday and short timescales. The source was in a flaring state during the period analyzed and displayed intense variability in all wavelengths. R band magnitude of 11.6 was attained by the target on 18 Jan 2015, which is the brightest value ever recorded for S5 0716+714. The discrete correlation function method yielded good correlation between the bands with no measurable time lags, implying that radiation in these bands originate from the same region and by the same mechanism. We also used the structure function technique to look for characteristic timescales in the light curves. During the times of rapid variability, no evidence for the source to display spectral changes with magnitude was found on either of the timescales. The amplitude of variations tends to increase with increasing frequency with a maximum of $\sim$ 22% seen during flaring states in B band. A mild trend of larger variability amplitude as the source brightens was also found. We found the duty cycle of our source during the analyzed period to be $\sim$ 90%. We also investigated the optical spectral energy distribution of S5 0716+714 using B, V, R, and I data points for 21 nights. We briefly discuss physical mechanisms most likely responsible for its flux and spectral variations., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The \gamma-ray loud blazars (flat spectrum radio quasars--FSRQs and BL Lacertae objects-BLs) are very bright in the \gamma-ray bands, which is perhaps associated with a beaming effect. Therefore, one can expect that the \gamma-ray luminosity is correlated with the beaming factor. In this paper, we investigated the relation between the radio Doppler factors and the gamma-ray luminosities. Our analysis suggests that the \gamma-ray luminosity be strongly correlated with the factor of \delta_R for the whole sample, FSRQs, and BLs. When the effect of a common redshift is excluded, the correlation still exists for the FSRQs sub-sample suggesting that the \gamma-rays are strongly beamed. However, the partial correlation analysis does not show a correlation for the small BL Lac sample., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, PASJ (accepted)

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are divided into two classes according to their durations. We investigate if the softness of bursts plays a role in the conventional classification of the objects. We employ the BATSE (Burst and Transient Source Experiment) catalog and analyze the duration distributions of different groups of GRBs associated with distinct softness. Our analysis reveals that the conventional classification of GRBs with the duration of bursts is influenced by the softness of the objects. There exits a bimodality in the duration distribution of GRBs for each group of bursts and the time position of the dip in the bimodality histogram shifts with the softness parameter. Our findings suggest that the conventional classification scheme should be modified by separating the two well-known populations in different softness groups, which would be more reasonable than doing so with a single sample. According to the relation between the dip position and the softness parameter, we get an empirical function that can roughly set apart the short-hard and long-soft bursts: $SP = (0.100 \pm 0.028) T_{90}^{-(0.85 \pm 0.18)}$, where $SP$ is the softness parameter adopted in this paper., Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures

To shed light onto the circumnuclear environment of 22 GHz H2O maser galaxies, we have analyzed some of their multi-wavelength properties, including the far infrared luminosity (FIR), the luminosity of the [O III]\lambda5007 emission line, the nuclear X-ray luminosity, and the equivalent width of the neutral iron Ka emission line (EW (Ka)). Our statistical analysis includes a total of 85 sources, most of them harboring an active galactic nucleus (AGN). There are strong anti-correlations between EW (Ka) and two "optical thickness parameters", i.e. the ratios of the X-ray luminosity versus the presumably more isotropically radiated [O III] and far infrared (FIR) luminosities. Based on these anti-correlations, a set of quantitative criteria, EW (Ka) > 300eV, L_{2-10keV} < 2L_[O III] and L_{FIR} > 600L_{2-10keV} can be established for Compton-thick nuclear regions. 18 H2O maser galaxies belong to this category. There are no obvious correlations between the EW (Ka), the [O III] luminosity and the isotropic H2O maser luminosity. When comparing samples of Seyfert 2s with and without detected H2O maser lines, there seem to exist differences in EW (Ka) and the fraction of Compton-thick nuclei. This should be studied further. For AGN masers alone, there is no obvious correlation between FIR and H2O maser luminosities. However, including masers associated with star forming regions, a linear correlation is revealed. Overall, the extragalactic FIR-H2O data agree with the corresponding relation for Galactic maser sources, extrapolated by several orders of magnitude to higher luminosities., Comment: 32 pages with 5 figures and 2 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

We monitored the BL Lac object S5 0716+714 in the optical band during October 2008, December 2008 and February 2009 with a best temporal resolution of about 5 minutes in the BVRI bands. Four fast flares were observed with amplitudes ranging from 0.3 to 0.75 mag. The source remained active during the whole monitoring campaign, showing microvariability in all days except for one. The overall variability amplitudes are delta B ~ 0.89 mag, delta V ~ 0.80 mag, delta R ~ 0.73 mag and delta I ~0.51 mag. Typical timescales of microvariability range from 2 to 8 hours. The overall V - R color index ranges from 0.37 to 0.59. Strong bluer- when-brighter chromatism was found on internight timescales. However, different spectral behavior was found on intranight timescales. A possible time lag of ~ 11 mins between B and I bands was found on one night. The shock-in-jet model and geometric effects can be applied to explain the source's intranight behavior., Comment: 44 pages, 17 figures, 5 tables, accepted by APJS

The softening process observed in the steep decay phase of early X-ray afterglows of Swift bursts has remained a puzzle since its discovery. The softening process can also be observed in the later phase of the bursts and its cause has also been unknown. Recently, it was suggested that, influenced by the curvature effect, emission from high latitudes would shift the Band function spectrum from higher energy band to lower band, and this would give rise to the observed softening process accompanied by a steep decay of the flux density. The curvature effect scenario predicts that the terminating time of the softening process would be correlated with the duration of the process. In this paper, based on the data from the UNLV GRB group web-site, we found an obvious correlation between the two quantities. In addition, we found that the softening process can be divided into two classes: the early type softening ($t_{s,max}\leq "4000"s$) and the late type softening ($t_{s,max} > "4000"s$). The two types of softening show different behaviors in the duration vs. terminating time plot. In the relation between the variation rates of the flux density and spectral index during the softening process, a discrepancy between the two types of softening is also observed. According to their time scales and the discrepancy between them, we propose that the two types are of different origins: the early type is of internal shock origin and the late type is of external shock origin. The early softening is referred to the steep decay just following the prompt emission, whereas the late decay typically conceives the transition from flat decay to late afterglow decay. We suspect that there might be a great difference of the Lorentz factor in two classes which is responsible for the observed discrepancy., Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for Publication to Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (JCAP)

We selected a sample of a dozen blazars which are the prime candidates for simultaneous multi-wavelength observing campaigns in their outburst phase. We searched for optical outbursts, intra-day variability and short term variability in these blazars. We carried out optical photometric monitoring of nine of these blazars in 13 observing nights during our observing run October 27, 2006 - March 20, 2007 by using the 1.02 meter optical telescope. From our observations, our data favor the hypothesis that three blazars were in the outburst state; one blazar was in the post outburst state; three blazars were in the pre/post outburst state; one blazar was in the low-state; and the state of one blazar was not known because there is not much optical data available for the blazar to compare with our observations. Out of three nights of observations of AO 0235+164, intra-day variability was detected in two nights. Out of five nights of observations of S5 0716+714, intra-day variability was detected in two nights. In one night of observations of PKS 0735+178, intra-day variability was detected. Out of six nights of observations of 3C 454.3, intra-day variability was detected in three nights. No intra-day variability was detected in S2 0109+224, OJ 287, ON 231, 3C 279 and 1ES 2344+514 in their 1, 4, 1, 2 and 1 nights of observations respectively. AO 0235+164, S5 0716+714, OJ 287, 3C 279 and 3C 454.3 were observed in more than one night and short term variations in all these blazars were also noticed. From our observations and the available data, we found that the predicted optical outburst with the time interval of ~ 8 years in AO 0235+164 and ~ 3 years in S5 0716+714 have possibly occurred., Comment: 7 figures, 4 tables, Accepted for publication in Astronomical Journal

Optically thin two-temperature accretion flows may be thermally and viscously stable, but acoustically unstable. Here we propose that the O-mode instability of a cooling-dominated optically thin two-temperature inner disk may explain the 23-day quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) period observed in the TeV and X-ray light curves of Mkn~501 during its 1997 high state. In our model the relativistic jet electrons Compton upscatter the disk soft X-ray photons to TeV energies, so that the instability-driven X-ray periodicity will lead to a corresponding quasi-periodicity in the TeV light curve and produce correlated variability. We analyse the dependence of the instability-driven quasi-periodicity on the mass (M) of the central black hole, the accretion rate ($\rm{\dot{M}}$) and the viscous parameter ($\alpha$) of the inner disk. We show that in the case of Mkn~501 the first two parameters are constrained by various observational results, so that for the instability occurring within a two-temperature disk where $\alpha=0.05-1.0$, the quasi-period is expected to lie within the range of 8 to 100 days, as indeed the case. In particular, for the observed 23-day QPO period our model implies a viscosity coefficient $\alpha \leq 0.28$, a sub-Eddington accretion rate $\dot{M} \simeq 0.02 \dot{M}_{\rm Edd}$ and a transition radius to the outer standard disk of $r_0 \sim 60 r_g$, and predicts a period variation $\delta P/P \sim 0.23$ due to the motion of the instability region., Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure, accepted by APh

In this paper, we used the database of the university of Michigan Radio Astronomy Observatory (UMRAO) at three (4.8 GHz, 8.0 GHZ, and 14.5 GHz) radio frequency to analyze the radio light curves by the power spectral analysis method in search of possible periodicity. The analysis results showed that the radio sources display astrophysically meaningful periodicity ranging from 2.2 to 20.8 years in their light curves at the three frequencies. We also calculated the variability parameters and investigated the correlations between the variability parameter and the flux density. For the variability parameters, we found that the parameters at higher frequency are higher than those in the lower frequency. In addition, the variability parameters of BL Lacertae objects are larger than those of flat-spectrum radio quasars. suggesting that they are more variable than flat spectrum radio quasars., Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, A&A in press

We have investigated the gamma-ray bursts pulses assumed to arise from relativistically expending fireballs. We find, due to the curvature effect, the evolutionary curve of the raw hardness ratio (when the background count is included) varies significantly, depending on the hardness of a burst. For a soft burst, an upside-down pulse of its raw hardness ratio curve (HRC) would be observed; for a hard burst, its raw HRC shows a pulse-like profile with a sinkage in its decaying phase; for a very hard burst, the raw HRC possesses a pulse-like profile without a sinkage in its decaying phase. For a pulse-like raw HRC as shown in the case of the hard and very hard bursts, its peak would appear in advance of that of the corresponding light curve. We have studied here the HRC of GRB 920216, GRB 920830 and GRB 990816 in detail. The features of the raw HRC expected in the hard burst are observed in these bursts. A fit to the three bursts shows that the curvature effect alone could indeed account for the predicted characteristics of HRCs. In addition, we find that the observed hardness ratio tends to be harder at the beginning of the pulses than what the curvature effect could predict and be softer at the late time of the pulses. We believe this is an evidence showing the existence of intrinsic hard-to-soft radiation., Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, 1 table

We reported the result of long term optical variability of the blazar 4C 29.45 (QSO 1156+295, Ton 599), carried out optical photometric observations in Johnson V, Cousins RI passbands during April 1997 to March 2002 using the 1.56 meter telescope of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) at Sheshan, China, compiled the post-1974 optical photometric data of the blazar by combining our new observations with the published optical data, and found maximum variations in different passbands: $\Delta$U = 4.41 mag, $\Delta$B = 5.55 mag, $\Delta$V = 4.53 mag, $\Delta$R = 5.80 mag, and $\Delta$I = 5.34 mag. The average color indices are: U$-$B = $-0.54\pm$0.18 mag, B$-$V = 0.56$\pm$0.21 mag, B$-$R = 0.93$\pm$0.18 mag, B$-$I = 1.51$\pm$0.24 mag, V$-$R = 0.44$\pm$0.15 mag and V$-$I = 1.03$\pm$0.23 mag. The post-1974 data give us an excellent opportunity to search for the existence of possible periodicity in the light curve. In search for periodicity in the R passband light curve, we performed Jurkevich test and power spectral (Fourier) analysis methods, and CLEANest algorithms to remove false signals. We found possible periods of 3.55 and 1.58 years. The possible mechanism for the periodic variability was discussed., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables; PASJ in press