Long-term optical monitoring of Blazars

Abstract

Blazars are a polarized, extremely variable and highly energetic Active Galactic Nuclei which are assumed to be powered by a central black hole. The study of their multi-wavelength spectra has provided significant information about Blazars. In this thesis long-term monitoring of six Blazars is used to detect the power-law slope and possible break in power spectral density by likelihood analysis combined with the multiple fragments variance function (MFVF) method. Multiple fragments variance function is a newly developed method for analyzing the variability of a time series on different timescales.

Four of the six studied objects here seemed promising for the presence of break frequency in their power spectra. Regardless, improving the quality of observation, providing the longer period of observation and decrease the technical issues during the analyzing process by improving the program are demanding factors to modify future studies in this particular field.