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THE BRIGHTEST GAMMA-RAY FLARING BLAZAR IN THE SKY: AGILE AND MULTI-WAVELENGTH OBSERVATIONS OF 3C 454.3 DURING 2010 NOVEMBER

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS 736 (2): 10.1088/2041-8205/736/2/L38 AUG 1 2011

Authors:
Vercellone, S; Striani, E; Vittorini, V; Donnarumma, I; Pacciani, L; Pucella, G; Tavani, M; Raiteri, CM; Villata, M; Romano, P; Fiocchi, M; Bazzano, A; Bianchin, V; Ferrigno, C; Maraschi, L; Pian, E; Turler, M; Ubertini, P; Bulgarelli, A; Chen, AW; Giuliani, A; Longo, F; Barbiellini, G; Cardillo, M; Cattaneo, PW; Del Monte, E; 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, HD; Aller, MF; Arkharov, AA; Bach, U; Berdyugin, A; Borman, GA; Chigladze, R; Efimov, YS; Efimova, NV; Gomez, JL; Gurwell, MA; McHardy, IM; Joshi, M; Kimeridze, GN; Krajci, T; Kurtanidze, OM; Kurtanidze, SO; Larionov, VM; Lindfors, E; Molina, SN; Morozova, DA; Nazarov, SV; Nikolashvili, MG; Nilsson, K; Pasanen, M; Reinthal, R; Ros, JA; Sadun, AC; Sakamoto, T; Sallum, S! ; Sergeev, SG; Schwartz, RD; Sigua, LA; Sillanpaa, A; Sokolovsky, KV; Strelnitski, V; Takalo, L; Taylor, B; Walker, G

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 gamma-ray flare per year, becoming the most active gamma-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 gamma-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(gamma)(p) = (6.8 +/- 1.0) x 10(-5) photons cm(-2) s(-1) on a timescale of about 12 hr, more than a factor of six higher than the flux of the brightest steady gamma-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 gamma-ray flare, we find that the radio, optical, and X-ray emission varies within a factor of 2-3, whereas the gamma-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.

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