Revisiting neutrino event epochs for the blazar PKS 0735+178 with TESS

Abstract

We present here the results of the optical light curve variability analysis of the blazars PKS 0735+178, in weeks-scale flare state, observed in three sectors with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The TESS observations in this study coincide with a well-known neutrino emission phase detected with four different neutrino observatories at multiple epochs in a narrow time window. We segmented the rising and decaying parts of the flare and individually analyzed their flux distribution, excess variance, variability timescale, and power spectral density (PSD). The source displayed an elevated excess variance of ~25%, with a multimodal flux distribution (coherent in the rising and distorted in the decaying phase). The variability timescale analysis highlights a much faster decay than the rising scale, and the PSDs depict a nominal change in the power spectral slope. We discuss a likely connection in the optical variations and the neutrino events, and briefly explain a possible physical scenario for the observed optical flux behavior in view of previously discovered radio-band results.