The December 2009 gamma-ray flare of 3C 454.3: the multifrequency campaign

L. Pacciani , V. Vittorini , M. Tavani , M. T. Fiocchi , S. Vercellone , F. D'Ammando , T. Sakamoto , E. Pian

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C. M. Raiteri M. Villata M. Sasada R. Itoh M. Yamanaka M. Uemura E. Striani D. Fugazza A. Tiengo H. A. Krimm M. C. Stroh A. D. Falcone P. A. Curran A. C. Sadun A. Lahteenmaki M. Tornikoski H. D. Aller M. F. Aller C. S. Lin V. M. Larionov P. Leto L. O. Takalo A. Berdyugin M. A. Gurwell A. Bulgarelli A. W. Chen I. Donnarumma A. Giuliani F. Longo G. Pucella A. Argan G. Barbiellini P. Caraveo P. W. Cattaneo V. Cocco E. Costa G. De Paris E. Del Monte G. Di Cocco Y. Evangelista A. Ferrari M. Feroci M. Fiorini F. Fuschino M. Galli F. Gianotti C. Labanti I. Lapshov F. Lazzarotto P. Lipari M. Marisaldi S. Mereghetti E. Morelli E. Moretti A. Morselli A. Pellizzoni F. Perotti G. Piano P. Picozza M. Pilia M. Prest M. Rapisarda A. Rappoldi A. Rubini S. Sabatini P. Soffitta M. Trifoglio A. Trois E. Vallazza D. Zanello S. Colafrancesco C. Pittori F. Verrecchia P. Santolamazza F. Lucarelli P. Giommi L. Salotti

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classification 🌌 astro-ph.CO

keywords emissiongamma-rayopticaldecemberduringmonthpeaksuper-flare

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During the month of December, 2009 the blazar 3C 454.3 became the brightest gamma-ray source in the sky, reaching a peak flux F ~2000E-8 ph/cm2/s for E > 100 MeV. Starting in November, 2009 intensive multifrequency campaigns monitored the 3C 454 gamma-ray outburst. Here we report the results of a 2-month campaign involving AGILE, INTEGRAL, Swift/XRT, Swift/BAT, RossiXTE for the high-energy observations, and Swift/UVOT, KANATA, GRT, REM for the near-IR/optical/UV data. The GASP/WEBT provided radio and additional optical data. We detected a long-term active emission phase lasting ~1 month at all wavelengths: in the gamma-ray band, peak emission was reached on December 2-3, 2009. Remarkably, this gamma-ray super-flare was not accompanied by correspondingly intense emission in the optical/UV band that reached a level substantially lower than the previous observations in 2007-2008. The lack of strong simultaneous optical brightening during the super-flare and the determination of the broad-band spectral evolution severely constrain the theoretical modelling. We find that the pre- and post-flare broad-band behavior can be explained by a one-zone model involving SSC plus external Compton emission from an accretion disk and a broad-line region. However, the spectra of the Dec. 2-3, 2009 super-flare and of the secondary peak emission on Dec. 9, 2009 cannot be satisfactorily modelled by a simple one-zone model. An additional particle component is most likely active during these states.

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The December 2009 gamma-ray flare of 3C 454.3: the multifrequency campaign

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