The Optical Variability Properties of TeV Blazars

Abstract Variability is one of the typical observational properties of blazars and the spectral changes are usually associated with variability, although this kind of association is unclear yet. In this work, we used data from the Steward Observatory blazar monitoring program to investigate the optical variability properties including the short-term timescale, the brightness-dependent spectral property, the correlation between the the brightness variation and the polarization, and then estimate the Doppler factors based on the obtained short timescale to study the polarization property for a sample of 20 TeV blazars. Our analyses arrive at the following results: (1) The largest variation amplitude in R -band, Δ R M , covers a range from Δ R M = 0.29 mag (1ES 2344+514) to Δ R M = 4.66 mag (3C 279). (2) Intra-day variability was found from five sources with timescales from 0.14 day for S5 0716+714 to 0.98 day for PKS 2155–304. Sixteen sources show spectra that are bluer when they become brighter, suggesting a common bluer-when-brighter property. (3) The plot of the polarization versus estimated Doppler factor is consistent with the Doppler factor dependent formula of polarization. (4) The largest polarization is correlated with the largest optical variation, suggesting that the high polarization and high amplitude variation are both the indicator of beaming effect.