Gamma-ray and optical oscillations of 0716+714, MRK 421, and BL Lacertae

We examine the 2008-2016 γ-ray and optical light curves of three bright BL Lac objects, 0716+714, MRK 421, BL Lac, which exhibit large structured variability. We searched for periodicities by using a fully Bayesian approach. For two out of three sources investigated, no significant periodic variability was found. In the case of BL Lac, we detected a periodicity of ~680 days. Although the signal related to this is modest, the coincidence of the periods in both gamma and optical bands is indicative of a physical relevance. Taking into consideration previous literature results, possibly related γ-ray and optical periodicities of about one year time scale are proposed in four bright γ-ray blazars out of the ten examined in detail. Compared with results from periodicity search of optical archives of quasars, the presence of quasi-periodicities in blazars may be more frequent by a large factor. This suggests the intriguing possibility that the basic conditions for their observability are related to the relativistic jet in the observer direction, but the overall picture remains uncertain.