Multiwavelength observations of the blazar BL Lacertae: A new fast TeV γ-ray flare

Observations of fast TeV γ-ray flares from blazars reveal the extreme compactness of emitting regions in blazar jets. Combined with very-long-baseline radio interferometry measurements, they probe the structure and emission mechanism of the jet. We report on a fast TeV γ-ray flare from BL Lacertae observed by VERITAS, with a rise time of about 2.3 hours and a decay time of about 36 minutes. The peak flux at >200 GeV measured with the 4-minute binned light curve is (4.2 ±0.6) × 10-6 photons m-2 s-1, or ∼180% the Crab Nebula flux. Variability in GeV γ-ray, X-ray, and optical flux, as well as in optical and radio polarization was observed around the time of the TeV γ-ray flare. A possible superluminal knot was identified in the VLBA observations at 43 GHz. The flare constrains the size of the emitting region, and is consistent with several theoretical models with stationary shocks.

Citation

Feng, Q, Jorstad, S G, Marscher, A P, Lister, M L, Kovalev, Y Y, Pushkarev, A B, Savolainen, T, Agudo, I, Molina, S N, Gomez, J L, Larionov, V M, Borman, G A, Mokrushina, A A & Smith, P S 2017, ' Multiwavelength observations of the blazar BL Lacertae : A new fast TeV γ-ray flare ', Proceedings of Science, vol. Part F135186 . < https://pos.sissa.it/301/648/ >

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201805222673

Collections

[article-cris] Sähkötekniikan korkeakoulu / ELEC

Show all metadata

Multiwavelength observations of the blazar BL Lacertae: A new fast TeV γ-ray flare

Access rights

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Authors

Date

Department

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

Pages

Series

Abstract

Description

Keywords

Other note

Citation

Permanent link to this item

Collections