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Title: Fermi Large Area Telescope detection of gravitational lens delayed γ-ray flares from Blazar B0218+357

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal. Letters
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [5];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [15];  [15];  [1];  [16];  [17] more »;  [15];  [17];  [18];  [19];  [17];  [1] « less
  1. Naval Research Lab. (NRL), Washington, DC (United States). Space Science Division
  2. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Physics and Dept. of Astronomy; Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics, Stockholm (Sweden)
  3. NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), Moffett Field, Mountain View, CA (United States). Space Sciences Division
  4. Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom). Kavli Inst. for Cosmology and Inst. for Astronomy
  5. Stanford Univ. and SLAC National Accelerator Lab., CA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
  6. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  7. Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) Science Data Center, Rome (Italy); National Inst. of Astrophysics- Astronomical Observatory of Rome (Italy)
  8. Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology (CRESST) and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD (United States)
  9. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States)
  10. Stanford Univ. and SLAC National Accelerator Lab., CA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology; Oxford Univ. (United Kingdom). Dept. of Physics
  11. Praxis Inc., Alexandria, VA (United States)
  12. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Space Sciences Lab.
  13. National Inst. of Nuclear Physics, Padova (Italy); Univ. of Padova (Italy). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  14. George Mason Univ., Fairfax, VA (United States). Center for Earth Observing and Space Research
  15. National Inst. for Astrophysics (INAF), Bologna (Italy). Inst. for Radio Astronomy
  16. Univ. of Bordeaux (France). Gradignan Bordeaux Center for Nuclear Research
  17. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  18. National Inst. of Nuclear Physics, Pisa (Italy)
  19. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
+ Show Author Affiliations

We report the first clear γ-ray measurement of a delay between flares from the gravitationally lensed images of a blazar, using data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). We detected a delay in B0218+357, a known double-image lensed system, during a period of enhanced γ-ray activity with peak fluxes consistently observed to reach >20-50 × its previous average flux. An auto-correlation function analysis identified a delay in the γ-ray data of 11.46 ± 0.16 days (1σ) that is ~1 day greater than previous radio measurements. Considering that it is beyond the capabilities of the LAT to spatially resolve the two images, we nevertheless decomposed individual sequences of superposing γ-ray flares/delayed emissions. In three such ~8-10 day-long sequences within a ~4 month span, considering confusion due to overlapping flaring emission and flux measurement uncertainties, we found flux ratios consistent with ~1, thus systematically smaller than those from radio observations. During the first, best-defined flare, the delayed emission was detailed with a Fermi pointing, and we observed flux doubling timescales of ~3-6 hr implying as well extremely compact γ-ray emitting regions.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Contributing Organization:
Fermi LAT Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1356535
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal. Letters, Vol. 782, Issue 2; ISSN 2041-8205
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 40 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (14)

The Hubble Constant journal September 2015
Detection of very high energy gamma-ray emission from the gravitationally lensed blazar QSO B0218+357 with the MAGIC telescopes journal November 2016
Resolving the High-Energy Universe with Strong Gravitational Lensing: the case of pks 1830–211 journal August 2015
Radio follow-up of the γ-ray flaring gravitational lens JVAS B0218+357 journal February 2016
Constraining the microlensing effect on time delays with a new time-delay prediction model in H0 measurements journal September 2018
A revised lens time delay for JVAS B0218+357 from a reanalysis of VLA monitoring data journal March 2018
The Hubble constant. journal June 1993
Detection of very high energy gamma-ray emission from the gravitationally lensed blazar QSO B0218+357 with the MAGIC telescopes text January 2016
The Hubble Constant journal September 2007
The Hubble Constant journal April 1992
Resolving the High Energy Universe with Strong Gravitational Lensing: The Case of PKS 1830-211 text January 2015
Radio follow-up of the gamma-ray flaring gravitational lens JVAS B0218+357 text January 2016
A revised lens time delay for JVAS B0218+357 from a reanalysis of VLA monitoring data text January 2018
Constraining the microlensing effect on time delays with new time-delay prediction model in $H_{0}$ measurements text January 2018

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
galaxies: active
gamma rays: galaxies
gravitational lensing: strong
quasars: individual (B0218+357)