Multicolour near-infrared intra-day and short-term variability of the blazar S5 0716+714

Abstract

In this paper, we report results of our near-infrared (NIR) photometric variability studies of the BL Lacertae (BL Lac) object S5 0716+714. NIR photometric observations were spread over seven nights during our observing run on 2007 April 2–9 at the 1.8 m telescope equipped with the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute Near-Infrared Camera System and J, H, and Ks filters at Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory, South Korea. We searched for intra-day variability (IDV), short-term variability, and color variability in the BL Lac object. We have not detected any genuine IDV in any of the J, H, and Ks passbands in our observing run. Significant short-term variabilities ∼32.6%, 20.5% and 18.2% have been detected in the J, H, and Ks passbands, respectively, and ∼11.9% in (J − H ) color.