A search for chaos in the optical light curve of a blazar: W2R 1926+42

Abstract

In this work we search for signatures of low-dimensional chaos in the temporal behavior of the Kepler-field blazar W2R 1946+42. We use a publicly available, ~160000 points long and mostly equally spaced, light curve of W2R 1946+42. We apply the correlation integral method to both -- real datasets and phase randomized "surrogates". We are not able to confirm the presence of low-dimensional chaos in the light curve. This result, however, still leads to some important implications for blazar emission mechanisms, which are discussed.

7 pages including 4 figures and 1 table; accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics