Abstract
By means of structure function method, we have analyzed 20 blazars observed by the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) to search for possible variability period. There are the year-like periodic values in 11 of these blazars. The year-like periodicities in AO 0235+164, Mrk 501, 3C 273 and PKS 1510-089 are also found by the discrete correlation function method, the Jurkevich method and the power spectrum method. AO 0235+164, Mrk 501 and 3C 273 have possible nearly periodic values of about 370 days, 630 days and 370 days, respectively. PKS 1510-089 has two nearly periodic components, about 230 and 330 days. The year-like periodicities could be explained in the framework of a binary black hole system. The turbulence behind a shock may also give rise to the year-like periodicities, dominated by the dominant eddies’ turnover times. Also, the year-like periodicities may be from the interplay of a shock with essentially helical structures wrapping around a relativistic jet.
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Acknowledgements
We express our deep appreciations for reviewers giving us many valuable suggestions. This work is supported by the Hebei province natural science foundation for youths (No. A2015408006) and the key project of Langfang teachers university(No. LSLZ201602). This work has made use of lightcurves spectral files provided by the University of California, San Diego Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, X-ray Group (R.E. Rothschild, A.G. Markowitz, E.S. Rivers, and B.A. McKim), obtained at http://cass.ucsd.edu/~rxteagn/.
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Wang, H., Yin, C. & Xiang, F. The nearly periodic fluctuations of blazars in long-term X-ray light curves. Astrophys Space Sci 362, 99 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-017-3079-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-017-3079-y