RXTE Observations of 3C273 between 1996 and 2000:Variability Timescale and Jet Power

Details RXTE Observations of 3C273 between 1996 and 2000:Variability Timescale and Jet Power RXTE Observations of 3C273 between 1996 and 2000:Variability Timescale and Jet Power

2002-06-29

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0207003v1

Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 336 (2002) 932

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

13 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Scientific paper

10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05845.x

We present the results of a long-look monitoring of 3C273 with RXTE between 1996 and 2000. A total of 230 observations amounts to a net exposure of 845ksec, with this spectral and variability analysis of 3C273 covering the longest observation period available at hard X-ray energies. Flux variations by a factor of 4 have been detected over 4years, whereas less than 30% flux variations have been observed for individual flares on time-scales of 3 days. Two temporal methods, the power spectrum density (PSD) and the structure function (SF), have been used to study the variability characteristics of 3C273. The hard X-ray photon spectra generally show a power-law shape with a differential photon index of G = 1.6+-0.1. In 10 of 261 data segments, exceptions to power-law behaviour have been found: (i) an additional soft excess below 4keV, and (ii) a broad Fe fluorescent line feature with EW = 100-200 eV. Our new observations of these previously reported X-ray features may imply that 3C273 is a unique object whose hard X-ray emission occasionally contains a component which is not related to a beamed emission (Seyfert like), but most hard X-rays are likely to originate in inverse Compton radiation from the relativistic jet (blazar like). Multi-frequency spectra from radio to gamma-ray are presented in addition to our RXTE results. The X-ray time variability and spectral evolution are discussed in the framework of beamed, synchrotron self-Compton picture. We consider the ``power balance'' (both radiative and kinetic) between the accretion disk, sub-pc-scale jet, and the 10kpc-scale jet.

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