MICROVARIABILITY OF 0.3-10 keV FLUX IN HBL SOURCE PKS 2155-304

Abstract

The high energy peaked BL Lacertae object PKS 2155-304 has been observed 106-times by the X-ray Telescope onboard the Swift satellite through the 0.3-10 keV band since 2005 November 17. Among these observations, we have revealed 19 cases of the intraday flux variability at 99.9% confidence level with fractional rms amplitudes up to 30% and timescales ranging from 40 ks down to 0.4 ks. Flux changes were often accompanied by a spectral variability which showed a complex character in the presence of both clockwise and counter-clockwise evolution in a hardness ratio-flux plane. These events show rather curved spectra fitted well with the log-parabolic model. The curvature parameter ranged from 0.13 to 0.73 and showed different values for the spectra corresponding to the separate orbits of a single observation. The peak of spectral energy distribution ranged between 1.76 keV and 2.67 keV and generally was variable during the intraday flux changes. The soft and hard X-ray fluxes showed a strong correlation to each other. No correlation between the occurrence of intraday variations and source brightness state was seen — they are found as in flaring as well for intermediate and low states. The X-ray microvariability in PKS 2155-304 can be explained both with the shock-in-jet scenario and emergence of a "blob" of very energetic particles in the jet base.