Study of the variable broadband emission of Markarian 501 during the most extreme Swift X-ray activity

Understand

Mrk501 is a very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray blazar located at z=0.034.

• During a period of two weeks in July 2014, the highest X-ray activity of Mrk501 was observed in ~14 years of operation of the Neil Gehrels Swift Gamma-ray Burst Observatory.
• We characterize the broadband variability of Mrk501 from radio to VHE gamma rays, and evaluate whether it can be interpreted within theoretical scenarios widely used to explain the broadband emission from blazars.
• The temporal evolution of the most prominent and variable segments of the SED is described with a one-zone synchrotron self-Compton model with variations in the break energy of the electron energy distribution (EED), and with some adjustments in the magnetic field strength and spectral shape of the EED.