The Nature of Microvariability in Blazar Gopal Bhatta Department of Physics Florida International University Collaborators Dr James Webb Professor, Department of physics Florida International University Dr Hal Hollingsworth Department of physics Florida International University Dr Joe Pollock Department of Physics and Astronomy Appalachian State University Students: Gregory Azarnia, Chris Ceron Diana Alvarez Introduction Characteristics of Blazar A distant galaxy presumably with a giant black hole at its heart Highly variable Highly polarized light High red shift up to 6.4 ( Sloan DSS Quasar ) Radiation from radio to gamma ray Non thermal radiation synchrotron Blazar Structure A standard model of a Blazar A present model of Blazar: 1) Accretion disk 2) Supermassive black hole at the center 3) Relativistic Jets Radiation is mainly due to synchrotron and energy flows in the form of high speed jets by shock wave propagation Variability Long term ~ years Short term ~ days or months Microvariability intra-day (