Speaker
Michael Zacharias
(Institut für theoretische Physik IV, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany)
Description
The FSRQ CTA 102 (z=1.032) has been tremendously active over the last few years. During its peak activity lasting several months in late 2016 and early 2017, the gamma-ray and optical fluxes rose by up to a factor 100 above the quiescence level. We have interpreted the peak activity as the ablation of a gas cloud by the relativistic jet, which can nicely account for the months-long lightcurve in 2016 and 2017. The peak activity was in the middle of a 2-year-long high-state, which was characterized by increased fluxes and increased rms variability compared to the previous low-states, and which was flanked by two bright flares. In this presentation, we put the cloud-ablation scenario into the broader context of the 2-year-long high-state.
Primary author
Michael Zacharias
(Institut für theoretische Physik IV, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany)
Co-authors
Prof.
Markus Böttcher
(NWU Potchefstroom)
Mr
Felix Jankowsky
(LSW Heidelberg)
Dr
Jean-Philippe Lenain
(CNRS)
Prof.
Stefan Wagner
(LSW Heidelberg)
Alicja Wierzcholska
(Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN)
