| dc.description.abstract | Since 2005, the blazar 3C 454.3 has shown remarkable flaring activity at all frequencies, and during the last four years it has exhibited more than one γ-ray flare per year, becoming the most active γ-ray blazar in the sky. We present for the first time the multi-wavelength AGILE, Swift, INTEGRAL, and GASP-WEBT data collected in order to explain the extraordinary γ-ray flare of 3C 454.3 which occurred in 2010 November. On 2010 November 20 (MJD 55520), 3C 454.3 reached a peak flux (E >100 MeV) of F[superscript p] γ = (6.8 ± 1.0) × 10[superscript –5] photons cm[superscript –2] s[superscript –1] on a timescale of about 12 hr, more than a factor of six higher than the flux of the brightest steady γ-ray source, the Vela pulsar, and more than a factor of three brighter than its previous super-flare on 2009 December 2-3. The multi-wavelength data make possible a thorough study of the present event: the comparison with the previous outbursts indicates a close similarity to the one that occurred in 2009. By comparing the broadband emission before, during, and after the γ-ray flare, we find that the radio, optical, and X-ray emission varies within a factor of 2-3, whereas the γ-ray flux by a factor of 10. This remarkable behavior is modeled by an external Compton component driven by a substantial local enhancement of soft seed photons. | en_US |
| dspace.orderedauthors | Vercellone, S.; Striani, E.; Vittorini, V.; Donnarumma, I.; Pacciani, L.; Pucella, G.; Tavani, M.; Raiteri, C. M.; Villata, M.; Romano, P.; Fiocchi, M.; Bazzano, A.; Bianchin, V.; Ferrigno, C.; Maraschi, L.; Pian, E.; Türler, M.; Ubertini, P.; Bulgarelli, A.; Chen, A. W.; Giuliani, A.; Longo, F.; Barbiellini, G.; Cardillo, M.; Cattaneo, P. W.; Monte, E. Del; Evangelista, Y.; Feroci, M.; Ferrari, A.; Fuschino, F.; Gianotti, F.; Giusti, M.; Lazzarotto, F.; Pellizzoni, A.; Piano, G.; Pilia, M.; Rapisarda, M.; Rappoldi, A.; Sabatini, S.; Soffitta, P.; Trifoglio, M.; Trois, A.; Giommi, P.; Lucarelli, F.; Pittori, C.; Santolamazza, P.; Verrecchia, F.; Agudo, I.; Aller, H. D.; Aller, M. F.; Arkharov, A. A.; Bach, U.; Berdyugin, A.; Borman, G. A.; Chigladze, R.; Efimov, Yu. S.; Efimova, N. V.; Gómez, J. L.; Gurwell, M. A.; McHardy, I. M.; Joshi, M.; Kimeridze, G. N.; Krajci, T.; Kurtanidze, O. M.; Kurtanidze, S. O.; Larionov, V. M.; Lindfors, E.; Molina, S. N.; Morozova, D. A.; Nazarov, S. V.; Nikolashvili, M. G.; Nilsson, K.; Pasanen, M.; Reinthal, R.; Ros, J. A.; Sadun, A. C.; Sakamoto, T.; Sallum, S.; Sergeev, S. G.; Schwartz, R. D.; Sigua, L. A.; Sillanpää, A.; Sokolovsky, K. V.; Strelnitski, V.; Takalo, L.; Taylor, B.; Walker, G. | en_US |
