96 -
The Fermi-LAT collaboration: A. A. Abdo et al.
, the MAGICn collaboration: J. Aleksic
, et al.
2011
We report on the gamma-ray activity of the high-synchrotron-peaked BL Lacertae object Mrk 421 during the first 1.5 years of Fermi operation, from 2008 August 5 to 2010 March 12. We find that the Large Area Telescope (LAT) gamma-ray spectrum above 0.3
GeV can be well-described by a power-law function with photon index Gamma=1.78 +/- 0.02 and average photon flux F(>0.3 GeV)=(7.23 +/- 0.16) x 10^{-8} ph cm^{-2} s^{-1}. Over this time period, the Fermi-LAT spectrum above 0.3 GeV was evaluated on 7-day-long time intervals, showing significant variations in the photon flux (up to a factor ~3 from the minimum to the maximum flux), but mild spectral variations. The variability amplitude at X-ray frequencies measured by RXTE/ASM and Swift/BAT is substantially larger than that in gamma-rays measured by Fermi-LAT, and these two energy ranges are not significantly correlated. We also present the first results from the 4.5-month-long multifrequency campaign on Mrk 421, which included the VLBA, Swift, RXTE, MAGIC, the F-GAMMA, GASP-WEBT, and other collaborations and instruments which provided excellent temporal and energy coverage of the source throughout the entire campaign (2009 January 19 to 2009 June 1). During this campaign, Mrk 421 showed a low activity at all wavebands. The extensive multi-instrument (radio to TeV) data set provides an unprecedented, complete look at the quiescent spectral energy distribution (SED) for this source. The broad band SED was reproduced with a leptonic (one-zone Synchrotron Self-Compton) and a hadronic model (Synchrotron Proton Blazar). Both frameworks are able to describe the average SED reasonably well, implying comparable jet powers but very different characteristics for the blazar emission site.
We present the results from the Suzaku X-ray observations of five flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), namely PKS0208-512, Q0827+243, PKS1127-145, PKS1510-089 and 3C 454.3. All these sources were additionally monitored simultaneously or quasi-simulta
neously by the Fermi satellite in gamma-rays and the Swift UVOT in the UV and optical bands, respectively. We constructed their broad-band spectra covering the frequency range from 10^14 Hz up to 10^25 Hz, and those reveal the nature of high-energy emission of luminous blazars in their low-activity states. The analyzed X-ray spectra are well fitted by a power-law model with photoelectric absorption. In the case of PKS0208-512, PKS1127-145, and 3C 454.3, the X-ray continuum showed indication of hard-ening at low-energies. Moreover, when compared with the previous X-ray observations, we see a significantly increasing contribution of low-energy photons to the total X-ray fluxes when the sources are getting fainter. The same behavior can be noted in the Suzaku data alone. A likely explanation involves a variable, flat-spectrum component produced via inverse-Compton (IC) emission, plus an additional, possibly steady soft X-ray component prominent when the source gets fainter. This soft X-ray excess is represented either by a steep powerlaw (photon indices Gamma ~ 3 - 5) or a blackbody-type emission with temperatures kT ~ 0.1-0.2 keV. We model the broad-band spectra spectra of the five observed FSRQs using synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) and/or external-Compton radiation (ECR) models. Our modeling suggests that the difference between the low and high-activity states in luminous blazars is due to the different total kinetic power of the jet, most likely related to varying bulk Lorentz factor of the outflow within the blazar emission zone.
We report the discovery of high-energy (E>100 MeV) gamma-ray emission from NGC 1275, a giant elliptical galaxy lying at the center of the Perseus cluster of galaxies, based on observations made with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) of the Fermi Gamma r
ay Space Telescope. The positional center of the gamma-ray source is only ~3 away from the NGC 1275 nucleus, well within the 95% LAT error circle of ~5.The spatial distribution of gamma-ray photons is consistent with a point source. The average flux and power-law photon index measured with the LAT from 2008 August 4 to 2008 December 5 are F_gamma = (2.10+-0.23)x 10^{-7} ph (>100 MeV) cm^{-2} s^{-1} and Gamma = 2.17+-0.05, respectively. The measurements are statistically consistent with constant flux during the four-month LAT observing period.Previous EGRET observations gave an upper limit of F_gamma < 3.72x 10 ^{-8} ph (>100 MeV) cm^{-2} s^{-1} to the gamma-ray flux from NGC 1275. This indicates that the source is variable on timescales of years to decades, and therefore restricts the fraction of emission that can be produced in extended regions of the galaxy cluster. Contemporaneous and historical radio observations are also reported. The broadband spectrum of NGC 1275 is modeled with a simple one-zone synchrotron/synchrotron self-Compton model and a model with a decelerating jet flow.
