Minute-Timescale >100 MeV gamma-ray variability during the giant outburst of quasar 3C 279 observed by Fermi-LAT in 2015 June

Markus Ackermann; R. Anantua; K. Asano; Luca Baldini; Guido Barbiellini; D. Bastieri; J. Becerra Gonzalez; R. Bellazzini; E. Bissaldi; R. D. Blandford; E. D. Bloom; R. Bonino; E. Bottacini; P. Bruel; R. Buehler; G. A. Caliandro; R. A. Cameron; M. Caragiulo; P. A. Caraveo; E. Cavazzuti; C. Cecchi; C. C. Cheung; J. Chiang; G. Chiaro; S. Ciprini; J. Cohen-Tanugi; F. Costanza; S. Cutini; F. D’ammando; F. De Palma; R. Desiante; S. W. Digel; N. Di Lalla; M. Di Mauro; L. Di Venere; P. S. Drell; C. Favuzzi; S. J. Fegan; E. C. Ferrara; Y. Fukazawa; S. Funk; P. Fusco; F. Gargano; D. Gasparrini; N. Giglietto; F. Giordano; M. Giroletti; I. A. Grenier; Lucas Guillemot; S. Guiriec; M. Hayashida; E. Hays; D. Horan; G. Jóhannesson; S. Kensei; D. Kocevski; M. Kuss; G. La Mura; S. Larsson; L. Latronico; J. Li; F. Longo; F. Loparco; B. Lott; M. N. Lovellette; P. Lubrano; G. M. Madejski; J. D. Magill; S. Maldera; A. Manfreda; M. Mayer; M. N. Mazziotta; P. F. Michelson; N. Mirabal; T. Mizuno; M. E. Monzani; A. Morselli; I. V. Moskalenko; K. Nalewajko; M. Negro; E. Nuss; T. Ohsugi; E. Orlando; D. Paneque; J. S. Perkins; M. Pesce-Rollins; F. Piron; G. Pivato; T. A. Porter; G. Principe; R. Rando; M. Razzano; S. Razzaque; A. Reimer; J. D. Scargle; C. Sgrò; M. Sikora; D. Simone; E. J. Siskind; F. Spada; P. Spinelli; L. Stawarz; J. B. Thayer; D. J. Thompson; D. F. Torres; E. Troja; Y. Uchiyama; Y. Yuan; S. Zimmer

doi:10.3847/2041-8205/824/2/L20

Journal articles

Minute-Timescale >100 MeV gamma-ray variability during the giant outburst of quasar 3C 279 observed by Fermi-LAT in 2015 June

Ammando 24,25 , F. de Palma 12

Markus Ackermann R. Anantua K. Asano ¹ Luca Baldini Guido Barbiellini D. Bastieri J. Becerra Gonzalez R. Bellazzini E. Bissaldi R. D. Blandford E. D. Bloom R. Bonino E. Bottacini P. Bruel R. Buehler G. A. Caliandro R. A. Cameron M. Caragiulo P. A. Caraveo E. Cavazzuti C. Cecchi ² C. C. Cheung ³ J. Chiang G. Chiaro S. Ciprini J. Cohen-Tanugi F. Costanza S. Cutini F. D’ammando F. De Palma R. Desiante S. W. Digel ⁴ N. Di Lalla ⁵ M. Di Mauro ⁶ L. Di Venere P. S. Drell C. Favuzzi S. J. Fegan E. C. Ferrara ⁷ Y. Fukazawa S. Funk ⁸ P. Fusco ⁹ F. Gargano D. Gasparrini N. Giglietto F. Giordano M. Giroletti ¹⁰ I. A. Grenier ^{11, 12} Lucas Guillemot ^{13, 14} S. Guiriec M. Hayashida E. Hays D. Horan ¹⁵ G. Jóhannesson S. Kensei D. Kocevski M. Kuss ¹⁶ G. La Mura ¹⁷ S. Larsson ¹⁸ L. Latronico J. Li ¹⁹ F. Longo F. Loparco ²⁰ B. Lott ²¹ M. N. Lovellette P. Lubrano G. M. Madejski J. D. Magill S. Maldera A. Manfreda M. Mayer ²² M. N. Mazziotta P. F. Michelson ²³ N. Mirabal T. Mizuno M. E. Monzani A. Morselli I. V. Moskalenko K. Nalewajko M. Negro ^{24, 25} E. Nuss ²⁰ T. Ohsugi E. Orlando D. Paneque J. S. Perkins ²⁶ M. Pesce-Rollins F. Piron ²⁰ G. Pivato T. A. Porter ²⁷ G. Principe R. Rando M. Razzano S. Razzaque A. Reimer J. D. Scargle C. Sgrò ²⁸ M. Sikora D. Simone ²⁹ E. J. Siskind F. Spada P. Spinelli ³⁰ L. Stawarz J. B. Thayer D. J. Thompson ³¹ D. F. Torres E. Troja Y. Uchiyama ³² Y. Yuan ³³ S. Zimmer ³⁴

1 Division of Biology, Kansas State University

2 Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche Sperimentali e Cliniche “Mario Serio”

3 NRL - Naval Research Laboratory

4 SLAC - Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

5 UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research

6 Department of Molecular Medicine

7 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

8 LSHTM - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

9 INFN, sezione di Bari - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, sezione di Bari

10 INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica

11 ENSA Nantes - École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Nantes

12 UPD7 - Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7

13 USN - Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay

14 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace

15 LLR - Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet

16 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa

17 DIEE

18 GU - University of Gothenburg

19 ERTIM - Équipe de Recherche en Textes, Informatique, Multilinguisme

20 LUPM - Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier

21 CENBG - Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan

22 LPC - Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire - Clermont-Ferrand

23 HEPL - Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory

24 UNITO - Università degli studi di Torino

25 INFN, Sezione di Torino - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino

26 University of Botswana

27 Department of Animal and Avian Sciences

28 CHU Dijon - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Dijon - Hôpital François Mitterrand

29 LERMA - Laboratoire d'Etude du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique

30 ENSA-V - École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Versailles

31 Sea Mammal Research Unit

32 Department of Physics [Tokyo]

33 Department of Biostatistics [Houston]

34 LCFC - Laboratoire de Conception Fabrication Commande

Abstract : On 2015 June 16, Fermi-LAT observed a giant outburst from the flat spectrum radio quasar 3C 279 with a peak $>100$ MeV flux of $\sim3.6\times10^{-5}\;{\rm photons}\;{\rm cm}^{-2}\;{\rm s}^{-1}$ averaged over orbital period intervals. It is the historically highest $\gamma$-ray flux observed from the source including past EGRET observations, with the $\gamma$-ray isotropic luminosity reaching $\sim10^{49}\;{\rm erg}\;{\rm s}^{-1}$. During the outburst, the Fermi spacecraft, which has an orbital period of 95.4 min, was operated in a special pointing mode to optimize the exposure for 3C 279. For the first time, significant flux variability at sub-orbital timescales was found in blazar observations by Fermi-LAT. The source flux variability was resolved down to 2-min binned timescales, with flux doubling times less than 5 min. The observed minute-scale variability suggests a very compact emission region at hundreds of Schwarzschild radii from the central engine in conical jet models. A minimum bulk jet Lorentz factor ($\Gamma$) of 35 is necessary to avoid both internal $\gamma$-ray absorption and super-Eddington jet power. In the standard external-radiation-Comptonization scenario, $\Gamma$ should be at least 50 to avoid overproducing the synchrotron-self-Compton component. However, this predicts extremely low magnetization ($\sim5\times10^{-4}$). Equipartition requires $\Gamma$ as high as 120, unless the emitting region is a small fraction of the dissipation region. Alternatively, we consider $\gamma$ rays originating as synchrotron radiation of $\gamma_{\rm e}\sim1.6\times10^6$ electrons, in magnetic field $B\sim1.3$ kG, accelerated by strong electric fields $E\sim B$ in the process of magnetoluminescence. At such short distance scales, one cannot immediately exclude production of $\gamma$ rays in hadronic processes.

Keywords : galaxies: jets galaxies: active gamma rays: galaxies radiation mechanisms: non-thermal quasars: individual (3C 27

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Journal articles

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Sciences of the Universe [physics]

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Minute-Timescale >100 MeV gamma-ray variability during the giant outburst of quasar 3C 279 observed by Fermi-LAT in 2015 June

Ammando 24,25 , F. de Palma 12