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arxiv: 1101.2311 · v1 · submitted 2011-01-12 · 🌌 astro-ph.HE

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Discovery of Powerful Gamma-Ray Flares from the Crab Nebula

M. Tavani , A. Bulgarelli , V. Vittorini , A. Pellizzoni , E. Striani , P. Caraveo , M.C. Weisskopf , A. Tennant
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G. Pucella A. Trois E. Costa Y. Evangelista C. Pittori F. Verrecchia E. Del Monte R. Campana M. Pilia A. De Luca I. Donnarumma D. Horns C. Ferrigno C.O. Heinke M. Trifoglio F. Gianotti S. Vercellone A. Argan G. Barbiellini P.W. Cattaneo A.W. Chen T. Contessi F. D'Ammando G. DeParis G. Di Cocco G. Di Persio M. Feroci A. Ferrari M. Galli A. Giuliani M. Giusti C. Labanti I. Lapshov F. Lazzarotto P. Lipari F. Longo F. Fuschino M. Marisaldi S. Mereghetti E. Morelli E. Moretti A. Morselli L. Pacciani F. Perotti G. Piano P. Picozza M. Prest M. Rapisarda A. Rappoldi A. Rubini S. Sabatini P. Soffitta E. Vallazza A. Zambra D. Zanello F. Lucarelli P. Santolamazza P. Giommi L. Salotti G.F. Bignami
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classification 🌌 astro-ph.HE
keywords nebulapulsarcrabflaresfluxgamma-rayobservationstimescale
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The well known Crab Nebula is at the center of the SN1054 supernova remnant. It consists of a rotationally-powered pulsar interacting with a surrounding nebula through a relativistic particle wind. The emissions originating from the pulsar and nebula have been considered to be essentially stable. Here we report the detection of strong gamma-ray (100 MeV-10 GeV) flares observed by the AGILE satellite in September, 2010 and October, 2007. In both cases, the unpulsed flux increased by a factor of 3 compared to the non-flaring flux. The flare luminosity and short timescale favor an origin near the pulsar, and we discuss Chandra Observatory X-ray and HST optical follow-up observations of the nebula. Our observations challenge standard models of nebular emission and require power-law acceleration by shock-driven plasma wave turbulence within a ~1-day timescale.

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