{gamma}-RAY SPECTRAL EVOLUTION OF NGC 1275 OBSERVED WITH FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE
- Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, 3-4-1, Okubo, Shinjuku, Tokyo 169-8555 (Japan)
- Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, JAXA, 3-1-1, Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210 (Japan)
- NRC Research Associate, Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375 (United States)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia, I-06123 Perugia (Italy)
- Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) Science Data Center, I-00044 Frascati, Roma (Italy)
- Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), 34014 Trieste (Italy)
- Department of Physical Sciences, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526 (Japan)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
We report on a detailed investigation of the high-energy {gamma}-ray emission from NGC 1275, a well-known radio galaxy hosted by a giant elliptical located at the center of the nearby Perseus cluster. With the increased photon statistics, the center of the {gamma}-ray-emitting region is now measured to be separated by only 0.46 arcmin from the nucleus of NGC 1275, well within the 95% confidence error circle with radius {approx_equal}1.5 arcmin. Early Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) observations revealed a significant decade-timescale brightening of NGC 1275 at GeV photon energies, with a flux about 7 times higher than the one implied by the upper limit from previous EGRET observations. With the accumulation of one year of Fermi-LAT all-sky-survey exposure, we now detect flux and spectral variations of this source on month timescales, as reported in this paper. The average >100 MeV {gamma}-ray spectrum of NGC 1275 shows a possible deviation from a simple power-law shape, indicating a spectral cutoff around an observed photon energy of {epsilon}{sub {gamma}} = 42.2 {+-} 19.6 GeV, with an average flux of F{sub {gamma}} = (2.31 {+-} 0.13) x 10{sup -7} photons cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} and a power-law photon index, {Gamma}{sub {gamma}} = 2.13 {+-} 0.02. The largest {gamma}-ray flaring event was observed in 2009 April-May and was accompanied by significant spectral variability above {epsilon}{sub {gamma} {approx}}> 1-2 GeV. The {gamma}-ray activity of NGC 1275 during this flare can be described by a hysteresis behavior in the flux versus photon index plane. The highest energy photon associated with the {gamma}-ray source was detected at the very end of the observation, with the observed energy of {epsilon}{sub {gamma}} = 67.4 GeV and an angular separation of about 2.4 arcmin from the nucleus. In this paper we present the details of the Fermi-LAT data analysis, and briefly discuss the implications of the observed {gamma}-ray spectral evolution of NGC 1275 in the context of {gamma}-ray blazar sources in general.
- OSTI ID:
- 21448740
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 715, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/715/1/554; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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