A 31.3 day Transient Quasiperiodic Oscillation in Gamma-ray Emission from Blazar S5 0716+714

Abstract

We systematically search for quasiperiodic oscillatory (QPO) signals on the month timescale among the 1525 sources given in the Fermi Large Area Telescope Light Curve Repository. We find a transient QPO of 31.3 ± 1.8 days in the gamma-ray band light curve of the TeV blazar S5 0716+714, which has seven cycles (MJD 55918–56137) for the first time by weighted wavelet Z-transform and Lomb–Scargle periodogram methods. Monte Carlo simulations based on the power spectral density and probability distribution function were used to evaluate the confidence level of the QPO, and the result is ∼4.1σ. Seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average modeling of the light curve revealed it is a significant physical QPO. The physical models to explain the sporadic month-timescale QPOs in the blazar were discussed. Our studies indicate that the helical jet model and blob move helically in a curved jet model to properly explain this kind of transient QPO.