The Structure of Micro-Variability in the WEBT BL Lacertae Observation

Abstract

We present the results of an in-depth analysis of the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) micro-variability observations made during a campaign done in 2020 on the blazar BL Lacertae. The data consisted of 231 days of optical imaging and we separated the long-term light curve into individual single-night light curves, and then chose 41 nights that contained over 100 individual observations and also showed micro-variations well above the noise. Micro-variability is defined as excursions in the order of 0.01–0.1 magnitudes over timescales of hours or minutes either above or below a linear background sampled over the entire night. We then fit each individual micro-variability curve with model pulses from turbulent cells using the turbulent jet model.. We present the results of the pulse fitting analysis, which yields turbulent cell sizes, amplitudes and turbulent plasma characteristics.

Keywords

• blazars
• quasars
• micro-variability
• optical variability