Multi-wavelength observations of the BL Lac object Fermi J1544-0649: one year after its awakening
astro-ph.HE
/ Authors
P. H. T. Tam, P. S. Pal, Y. D. Cui, N. Jiang, Y. Sotnikova, C. W. Yang, L. Z. Wang, B. T. Tang, Y. B. Li, J. Mao
and 8 more authors
A. K. H. Kong, Z. H. Zhong, J. Ding, T. Mufakharov, J. F. Fan, L. M. Dou, R. F. Shen, Y. L. Ai
/ Abstract
We report observations of a transient source \fermi\ from radio to \grs. \fermi\ was discovered by the {\it Fermi-LAT} in May 2017. Follow-up {\it Swift-XRT} observations revealed three flaring episodes through March 2018, and the peak X-ray flux is about $10^3$ higher than the {\it ROSAT all-sky survey (RASS)} flux upper limit. Optical spectral measurements taken by the {\it Magellan 6.5-m telescope} and the {\it Lick-Shane telescope} both show a largely featureless spectrum, strengthening the BL Lac interpretation first proposed by \citet{Bruni18}. The optical and mid-infrared (MIR) emission goes to a higher state in 2018, when the flux in high energies goes down to a lower level. Our {\it RATAN-600m} measurements at 4.8~GHz and 8.2~GHz do not indicate any significant radio flux variation over the monitoring seasons in 2017 and 2018, nor deviate from the archival {\it NVSS} flux level. During GeV flaring times, the spectrum is very hard ($Γ_γ\sim$1.7) in the GeV band and at times also very hard (($Γ_{\rm X}\lesssim2$) in the X-rays, similar to a high-synchrotron-peak (or even an extreme) BL Lac object, making \fermi\ a good target for ground-based {\it Cherenkov telescopes}.