COMPTEL observations of the quasar PKS 0528+134 during the first 3.5 years of the CGRO mission
| Autor: | Collmar, W., Bennett, K., Bloemen, H., Blom, Jj, Hermsen, W., Lichti, Gg, Martin Pohl, Ryan, J., Schonfelder, V., Stacy, Jg, Steinle, H., Williams, Or |
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| Zdroj: | ResearcherID |
| Popis: | The COMPTEL observations of the blazar-type quasar PKS 0528+134 in the energy range 0.75 MeV to 30 MeV carried out between April 1991 and September 1994 have been analyzed. During the first two years PKS 0528+134 was most significantly detected at energies above 3 MeV. During the last year there is only evidence for the quasar at energies below 3 MeV indicating a spectral change. The time-averaged COMPTEL energy spectrum between 0.75 MeV and 30 MeV is well represented by a power-law shape. Spectra collected from different observational periods reveal different power-law shapes: a hard state during flaring observations reported by EGRET, and a soft state otherwise. The combined simultaneous EGRET and COMPTEL spectra indicate these two spectral states as well. During low intensisty gamma-ray phases no spectral break is obvious from the combined COMPTEL and EGRET measurements. For the gamma-ray flaring phases however, the combined COMPTEL and EGRET data require a spectral bending at MeV-energies. By fitting broken power-law functions the best-fit values for the break in photon index range between 0.6 and 1.7, and for the break energy between ~5 MeV and ~20 MeV. Because the flux values measured by COMPTEL below 3 MeV in both states are roughly equal, the observations would be consistent with an additional spectral component showing up during gamma-ray flaring phases of PKS 0528+134. Such a component could be introduced by e.g. a high-energy electron-positron population with a low-energy cutoff in their bulk Lorentz factor distribution. The multiwavelength spectrum of PKS 0528+134 for gamma-ray flaring phases shows that the major energy release across the entire electro-magnetic spectrum is measured at MeV-energies. Comment: 10 pages, 8 postscript figures, latex, to appear in: A&A 328, 33 (1997) |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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