Broad-band study of OQ 334 during its flaring state

Abstract

The blazar OQ 334 displayed a γ-ray flare in 2018, after being in the long quiescent γ-ray state since 2008. Subsequent to the flare, the source was in a higher γ-ray flux state and again flared in 2020. We present here the first spectral and timing analysis of the source at its various flaring states. During the higher γ-ray state, we found four major peaks identified as P1, P2, P3, and P4. From timing analysis we found rise and decay time of the order of hours with the fastest variability time of 9.01 ± 0.78 h. We found the highest γ-ray photon of 77 GeV during P4, which suggests the location of the γ-ray emitting region at the outer edge of the broad line region or the inner edge of the torus. The γ-ray spectral analysis of the source indicates that during P4, the γ-ray spectrum clearly deviates from the power-law behaviour. From cross-correlation analysis of the γ-ray and radio light curves, we found that the two emission regions are separated by about 11 pc. Our broad-band spectral energy distribution modelling of the source during quiescent and active phases indicates that more electron and proton power are required to change the source from low flux to high flux state. The Anderson–Darling test and histogram fitting results suggest that the three days binned γ-ray fluxes follow a lognormal distribution.