X-Ray Spectral Variability of Thirteen TeV High Energy Peaked Blazars with XMM-Newton

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study of the X-ray spectral variability observed in 13 TeV photon emitting high energy peaked BL Lacs(HBLs). These data come from 54 XMM-Newton EPIC-PN pointed observations made during its operational period from June 2001 through July 2023. We performed spectral studies in the energy range 0.6-10 keV by fitting X-ray spectra of the pointed observations with power law (PL) and log parabolic (LP) models. We found at 99% confidence level that 31 of these X-ray spectra were best fitted with a range of LP models with local photon indices (at 1.0 keV), alpha in the range of 1.75-2.66, and convex curvature parameter beta in the range of 0.02-0.25. PL models with photon index Gamma in the range of 1.78-2.68 best described the spectra of fourteen-pointed observations. Nine PN spectra resulted in negative curvature parameters in fitting an LP model, and eight among them were significant (beta is at least twice beta_err). We fitted broken power law (BPL) models to these eight X-ray spectra and found spectral hardening (Delta_Gamma) in the range of 0.06-0.54 for these observations. EPIC-MOS spectra were also studied for those eight observations to search for similar trends, and we were able to find them in only two, one observation each of PKS 0548-322 and Mrk 501. This indicates the possibility of the co-existence of an inverse Compton component along with the dominant synchrotron component for these two observations. We also performed correlation studies between various log-parabolic spectral parameters and briefly discuss their possible implications.