THE JUNE 2008 FLARE OF MARKARIAN 421 FROM OPTICAL TO TeV ENERGIES


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Donnarumma I., Vittorini V., Vercellone S., Del Monte E., Feroci M., D'Ammando F., ...Daha Fazla

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS, cilt.691, sa.1, 2009 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 691 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2009
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1088/0004-637x/691/1/l13
  • Dergi Adı: ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: BL Lacertae objects: individual (Mrk 421), gamma rays: observations, galaxies: jets, radiation mechanisms: non-thermal, X-rays: galaxies, BL-LAC OBJECTS, X-RAY-SPECTRA, GAMMA-RAYS, XMM-NEWTON, 3C 454.3, WEBT, OUTBURST, DISTRIBUTIONS, ACCELERATION, EMISSION
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

We present optical, X-ray, high-energy ((sic) 30 GeV) and very high energy ((sic) 100 GeV; VHE) observations of the high-frequency peaked blazar Mrk 421 taken between 2008 May 24 and June 23. A high-energy gamma-ray signal was detected by AGILE with root TS = 4.5 between June 9 and 15, with F(E > 100 MeV) = 42(-12)(+14) x 10(-8) photons cm(-2) s(-1). This flaring state is brighter than the average flux observed by EGRET by a factor of similar to 3, but still consistent with the highest EGRET flux. In hard X-rays (20-60 keV) SuperAGILE resolved a five-day flare (June 9-15) peaking at similar to 55 mCrab. SuperAGILE, RXTE/ASM and Swift/BAT data show a correlated flaring structure between soft and hard X-rays. Hints of the same flaring behavior are also detected in the simultaneous optical data provided by the GASP-WEBT. A Swift/XRT observation near the flaring maximum revealed the highest 2-10 keV flux ever observed from this source, of 2.6 x 10(-9) erg cm(-2) s(-1) (i.e. > 100 mCrab). A peak synchrotron energy of similar to 3 keV was derived, higher than typical values of similar to 0.5-1 keV. VHE observations with MAGIC and VERITAS between June 6 and 8 showed the flux peaking in a bright state, well correlated with the X-rays. This extraordinary set of simultaneous data, covering a 12-decade spectral range, allowed for a deep analysis of the spectral energy distribution as well as of correlated light curves. The gamma-ray flare can be interpreted within the framework of the synchrotron self-Compton model in terms of a rapid acceleration of leptons in the jet.