2020MNRAS.496.5518S

The origin of the multiwavelength emission from the high-synchrotron-peaked BL Lac 1ES 1218+304 is studied using the data from SwiftUVOT/XRT, NuSTAR, and Fermi-LAT.A detailed temporal and spectral analysis of the data observed during 2008-2020 in the γ-ray (>100 MeV), X-ray (0.3-70 keV), and optical/UV bands is performed. The γ-ray spectrum is hard with a photon index of 1.71 ± 0.02 above 100 MeV. The SwiftUVOT/XRT data show a flux increase in the UV/optical and X-ray bands; the highest 0.3-3 keV X-ray flux was (1.13 ± 0.02) x 10^–10 erg cm^–2 s^–1. In the 0.3-10 keV range, the averaged X-ray photon index is >2.0 which softens to 2.56 ± 0.028 in the 3-50 keV band. However, in some periods, the X-ray photon index became extremely hard (<1.8), indicating that the peak of the synchrotron component was above 1 keV, and so 1ES 1218+304 behaved like an extreme synchrotron BL Lac. The hardest X-ray photon index of 1ES 1218+304 was 1.60 ± 0.05 on MJD 58489. The time-averaged multiwavelength spectral energy distribution is modelled within a one-zone synchrotron self-Compton leptonic model using a broken power law and power law with an exponential cutoff electron energy distributions. The data are well explained when the electron energy distribution is E_ e_^–2.1 extending up to γ_br/cut ≃ (1.7 - 4.3) x 10⁵, and the magnetic field is weak (B ∼ 1.5 x 10^–2 G). By solving the kinetic equation for electron evolution in the emitting region, the obtained electron energy distributions are discussed considering particle injection, cooling, and escape.