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Title: {gamma}-RAY SPECTRAL EVOLUTION OF NGC 1275 OBSERVED WITH FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]; ;  [7]; ;  [8]
  1. Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, 3-4-1, Okubo, Shinjuku, Tokyo 169-8555 (Japan)
  2. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, JAXA, 3-1-1, Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210 (Japan)
  3. NRC Research Associate, Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375 (United States)
  4. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia, I-06123 Perugia (Italy)
  5. Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) Science Data Center, I-00044 Frascati, Roma (Italy)
  6. Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), 34014 Trieste (Italy)
  7. Department of Physical Sciences, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526 (Japan)
  8. 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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FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS OF MISALIGNED ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI journal August 2010
BROAD-LINE RADIO GALAXIES OBSERVED WITH FERMI -LAT: THE ORIGIN OF THE GeV γ-RAY EMISSION journal September 2011
THE SECOND CATALOG OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI DETECTED BY THE FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE journal December 2011
BLAZARS AS ULTRA-HIGH-ENERGY COSMIC-RAY SOURCES: IMPLICATIONS FOR TeV GAMMA-RAY OBSERVATIONS journal March 2012
LIMB-BRIGHTENED JET OF 3C 84 REVEALED BY THE 43 GHz VERY-LONG-BASELINE-ARRAY OBSERVATION journal March 2014
SUZAKU OBSERVATIONS OF γ-RAY BRIGHT RADIO GALAXIES: ORIGIN OF THE X-RAY EMISSION AND BROADBAND MODELING journal December 2014
The Connection Between the Radio jet and the Gamma-Ray Emission in the Radio Galaxy 3c 120 journal July 2015
The γ-Ray Emission Region in the Fanaroff-Riley ii Radio Galaxy 3c 111 journal April 2012
A stacked analysis of brightest cluster galaxies observed with the Fermi Large Area Telescope journal December 2012
On the spine-layer scenario for the very high-energy emission of NGC 1275 journal July 2014
A non-thermal study of the brightest cluster galaxy NGC 1275 – the Gamma-Radio connection over four decades journal June 2014
Discovery of a new subparsec counterjet in NGC 1275: the inclination angle and the environment journal November 2016
The GENJI Programme: Gamma-Ray Emitting Notable AGN Monitoring by Japanese VLBI journal April 2013
X-Ray and Optical Monitoring of a Gamma-Ray-Emitting Radio Galaxy, NGC 1275 journal April 2013
High-energy γ-ray properties of the Fanaroff-Riley type I radio galaxy NGC 1275: High-energy γ-ray properties of the FR I radio galaxy NGC 1275 journal March 2011
VLBI and single-dish monitoring of 3C 84 for the period 2009-2011: Radio monitoring of 3C 84 journal May 2012
X-Ray Properties of the Youngest Radio Sources and Their Environments journal May 2016
Rapid Gamma-Ray Variability of NGC 1275 journal October 2017
X-Ray and GeV Gamma-Ray Variability of the Radio Galaxy NGC 1275 journal March 2018
The Origins of the Gamma-Ray Flux Variations of NGC 1275 Based on Eight Years of Fermi -LAT Observations journal June 2018
Two Blobs in a Jet Model for the γ -Ray Emission in Radio Galaxies journal September 2018
FIRST DETECTION IN GAMMA-RAYS OF A YOUNG RADIO GALAXY: FERMI -LAT OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMPACT SYMMETRIC OBJECT PKS 1718−649 journal April 2016
Broad Line Radio Galaxies Observed with Fermi-LAT: The Origin of the GeV Gamma-Ray Emission text January 2011
GENJI Programme: Gamma-ray Emitting Notable AGN Monitoring by Japanese VLBI text January 2012
A Stacked Analysis of Brightest Cluster Galaxies Observed with the Fermi Large Area Telescope text January 2012
Limb-Brightened Jet of 3C 84 Revealed by the 43-GHz Very-Long-Baseline-Array Observation text January 2014
On the spine-layer scenario for the very high-energy emission of NGC 1275 text January 2014
Suzaku Observations of gamma-Ray Bright Radio Galaxies: Origin of the X-ray Emission and Broad-Band Modelin text January 2014
Discovery of a new subparsec counterjet in NGC 1275: the inclination angle and the environment text January 2016
Fermi-LAT Observation of Non-Blazar AGNs text January 2018