The origin of X-ray intra-day variability in HBL PKS 2155–304

¹ Department of Physics, Jinggangshan University, Ji’an 343009, PR China
² Department of Astronomy, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, PR China
³ School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China
⁴ Department of Astronomy, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361005, PR China

^⋆ Corresponding authors; huwen.3000@jgsu.edu.cn, jxw@ustc.edu.cn, xiaogc@ihep.ac.cn

Received: 18 December 2024
Accepted: 8 March 2025

Abstract

Context. The X-ray radiation from the high-frequency peaked BL Lac object (HBL) is believed to be produced by the energetic electrons accelerated in the inner regions of a relativistic jet. This is well beyond the current imaging capabilities of telescopes in any part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The rapid X-ray variability can offer crucial information for understanding the nature of the most compact regions in the relativistic jets, and the underlying particle acceleration processes at the dissipation distance.

Aims. The origin and physics of X-ray intra-day variability (IDV) in blazars, which is a long-standing issue, is studied by modelling the broad-band X-ray spectrum, the light curves (LCs), and the Fourier time lags.

Methods. We present the timing analysis of three archived XMM observations with a total exposure of >80 ks of PKS 2155-304, which is one of the brightest and most studied HBLs in the X-ray band. For each observation, we constructed averaged X-ray spectra in 0.5–10 keV band, as well as 100 s binned LCs in various sub-bands. We performed the Bayesian power spectral density (PSD) analysis and Fourier time-lag analyses of the variable LCs. The results are carefully modelled in the context of a multi-zone jet model.

Results. PSD analysis reveals that the X-ray variability can be characterised by red noise. The lag-frequency spectra measured in two observations show only the soft or negative lags, with the magnitude of the lags increasing as the frequency decreases. For another observation, the lag–frequency spectra are characterised by small positive or zero time lags at the lowest frequencies, which drops to negative values at higher frequencies. The magnitude of the soft lags ranges from ∼5 to ∼40 minutes, and increases with the energy difference of two compared LCs. The observed X-ray spectra and lag-frequency spectra can both be successfully described by our proposed two-zone model, with the physical parameters constrained in a fully acceptable space. Moreover, the LC profiles at different energy bands can be satisfactorily reproduced by only varying the injection rate of the energetic electrons.

Conclusions. The IDV of PKS 2155-304 should be caused by the injection of energetic electrons, and accelerated by shocks formed in a weakly magnetised jet.