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Title: A peculiar multiwavelength flare in the blazar 3C 454.3

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [5];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [5];  [10];  [11];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [14];  [15];  [16];  [15] more »;  [15];  [16];  [17] « less
  1. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai (China); Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital (India)
  2. Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore (India)
  3. The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo (Brazil)
  5. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai (China)
  6. Ohio Univ., Athens, OH (United States)
  7. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai (China); Univ. of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing (China)
  8. Inter Univ. Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune (India)
  9. Peking Univ., Beijing (China)
  10. Hiroshima Univ., Higashi-Hiroshima (Japan)
  11. Kyoto Univ., Kyoto (Japan)
  12. Radio Astronomy Lab. of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, Crimea (Ukraine); Taras Shevchenko National Univ. of Kyiv, Kiev (Ukraine)
  13. Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital (India)
  14. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  15. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia (Bulgaria)
  16. Aalto Univ., Aalto (Finland)
  17. Radio Astronomy Lab. of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, Crimea (Ukraine); Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kiev (Ukraine)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The blazar 3C 454.3 exhibited a strong flare seen in γ-rays, X-rays and optical/near-infrared bands during 2009 December 3–12. Emission in the V and J bands rose more gradually than did the γ-rays and soft X-rays, though all peaked at nearly the same time. Optical polarization measurements showed dramatic changes during the flare, with a strong anticorrelation between optical flux and degree of polarization (which rose from ~3 to ~20 percent) during the declining phase of the flare. The flare was accompanied by large rapid swings in polarization angle of ~170°. This combination of behaviours appears to be unique. We have cm-band radio data during the same period but they show no correlation with variations at higher frequencies. Such peculiar behaviour may be explained using jet models incorporating fully relativistic effects with a dominant source region moving along a helical path or by a shock-in-jet model incorporating three-dimensional radiation transfer if there is a dominant helical magnetic field. We find that spectral energy distributions at different times during the flare can be fit using modified one-zone models where only the magnetic field strength and particle break frequencies and normalizations need change. An optical spectrum taken at nearly the same time provides an estimate for the central black hole mass of ~2.3 × 109 M⊙. Furthermore, we also consider two weaker flares seen during the ~200 d span over which multiband data are available. In one of them, the V and J bands appear to lead the γ-ray and X-ray bands by a few days; in the other, all variations are simultaneous.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1410601
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 472, Issue 1; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 24 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (9)

Long-term optical spectroscopic variations in blazar 3C 454.3 journal October 2019
Multiband optical flux density and polarization microvariability study of optically bright blazars journal December 2019
Temporal correlation between the optical and γ-ray flux variations in the blazar 3C 454.3 journal April 2019
Characterizing Optical Variability of OJ 287 in 2016–2017 journal February 2019
Cosmological Evolution of Quasar Radio Emission in the View of Multifractality journal March 2019
Long-term Variability and Correlation Study of the Blazar 3C 454.3 in the Radio, NIR, and Optical Wavebands journal December 2019
Characterizing optical variability of OJ 287 in 2016 - 2017 text January 2018
Long term variability and correlation study of the blazar 3C 454.3 in radio, NIR and optical wavebands text January 2019
Multiband optical flux density and polarization microvariability study of optically bright blazars text January 2019

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BL Lacertae objects: general
galaxies:active
quasars: individual: 3C 454.3