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; Pascal 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

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 ¹ Luca Baldini Guido Barbiellini D. Bastieri J. Becerra Gonzalez R. Bellazzini E. Bissaldi R. D. Blandford E. D. Bloom R. Bonino E. Bottacini Pascal Bruel ^{2, 3} R. Buehler G. A. Caliandro R. A. Cameron M. Caragiulo P. A. Caraveo E. Cavazzuti C. Cecchi ⁴ C. C. Cheung ⁵ J. Chiang G. Chiaro S. Ciprini J. Cohen-Tanugi F. Costanza S. Cutini F. D’ammando F. De Palma R. Desiante S. W. Digel ⁶ N. Di Lalla ⁷ M. Di Mauro ⁸ L. Di Venere P. S. Drell C. Favuzzi S. J. Fegan E. C. Ferrara ⁹ Y. Fukazawa S. Funk ¹⁰ P. Fusco ¹¹ F. Gargano D. Gasparrini N. Giglietto F. Giordano M. Giroletti ¹² I. A. Grenier ¹³ Lucas Guillemot ^{14, 15} S. Guiriec M. Hayashida E. Hays D. Horan ¹⁶ G. Jóhannesson S. Kensei D. Kocevski M. Kuss ¹⁷ G. La Mura ¹⁸ S. Larsson ¹⁹ L. Latronico J. Li ²⁰ F. Longo F. Loparco ²¹ B. Lott ²² M. N. Lovellette P. Lubrano G. M. Madejski J. D. Magill S. Maldera A. Manfreda M. Mayer ²³ M. N. Mazziotta P. F. Michelson ²⁴ N. Mirabal T. Mizuno M. E. Monzani A. Morselli I. V. Moskalenko K. Nalewajko M. Negro ²⁵ E. Nuss ²¹ T. Ohsugi E. Orlando D. Paneque J. S. Perkins ²⁶ M. Pesce-Rollins F. Piron ²¹ 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 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

3 LMAP - Laboratoire de Mathématiques et de leurs Applications [Pau]

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

5 NRL - Naval Research Laboratory

6 SLAC - Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

7 UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research

8 Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine

9 Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Torino

10 LSHTM - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

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

12 INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica

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

14 USN - Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay

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

16 LLR - Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet

17 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pisa

18 DIEE

19 GU - University of Gothenburg

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

21 LUPM - Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier

22 CENBG - Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan

23 LPC - Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire - Clermont-Ferrand

24 HEPL - Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory

25 Institut Pasteur de Montevideo

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 ENSAV - 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 quasars: individual (3C 27 radiation mechanisms: non-thermal gamma rays: galaxies

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Sciences of the Universe [physics]

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https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01360099
Contributor : Nathalie Rouchon <>
Submitted on : Monday, September 5, 2016 - 1:39:34 PM
Last modification on : Friday, April 12, 2019 - 1:09:23 AM

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

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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

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