Unveiling the Emission and Variation Mechanism of Mrk 501: Using the Multi-Wavelength Data at Different Time Scale

Abstract

Variability study at multi-frequency provides us with rich information of the emission and variation mechanism for blazars. In this work, we present a comprehensive multi-frequency analysis of the high-synchrotron-peaked (HSP) blazar Mrk 501, using γ-ray, X-ray, optical, optical polarization, and radio data. The multiple-wavelength light curves are analyzed by using the localized cross-correlation function to derive locations of their emitting regions. The X-ray, γ-ray, and optical emitting regions are found to be upstream of the radio core region, while the X-ray and γ-ray emitting regions likely coincide. We studied the variation behaviors for three long-term (years), five relatively short-term (months) periods. We find a positive correlation between the optical and X-ray fluxes, and conclude that the variable of Doppler factor is not favored for the one-zone SSC scenario. The study also identifies the existence of a soft γ-ray background in the low-activity state, which could be explained by the spine/layer jet model. Our study on Mrk 501 provides valuable insights to understand the emission processes and variation mechanism for HSP blazars.