RAPID OPTICAL VARIABILITY IN BLAZAR S5 0716+71 DURING 2010 MARCH

We report rapid optical variability for the blazar S5 0716+71 during 2010 March 8-10 and 19-20 in the CCD observations made from Mt. Abu Infrared Observatory. The light curves are constructed for a duration longer than 3 hr each night, with very high temporal resolution (∼45 s in the R band). During 2010 March 8, the source smoothly decayed by about 0.15 mag in 2.88 hr, apart from a fast flicker lasting about 30 minutes. S5 0716+71 brightened during March 9 and 10, showing high activity, while it was relatively faint (>14 mag in the R band) albeit variable during March 19-20. During March 9 and 10, rapid flickers in the intensity modulated the long-term intra-night (∼3 hr) variations. The present observations suggest that the blazar S5 0716+71 showed night-to-night and intra-night variability at various timescales with a 100% duty cycle for variation along with microvariability at significant levels. On a night-to-night basis, the source exhibits mild bluer-when-brighter nature. The interaction of shocks with local inhomogeneities in the jet appears to cause intra-night variations, while microvariations could be due to small-scale perturbations intrinsic to the jet.