Researchers inspect gamma-ray flares of the blazar 3C 279

Tomasz Nowakowski is a member of the physics.org community.

The variability and behavior of flares in a distant blazar have been investigated by the Chinese. The results of the study can help researchers understand the activity of blazars.

Blazars are very small quasars that are associated with black holes. Astronomers divide blazars into two classes based on their optical emission properties: flat-spectrum radio quasars that feature prominent and broad optical emission lines, andBL Lacs, which do not.

At a distance of about 5 billion light years, 3C279 is a black hole with an estimated black hole mass of 800 million solar mass. The first blazar showing strong and rapid variability at GeV energies is bright and powerful.

In the past decade, 3C 279 has experienced several outbursts and three of them occurred in the last year. Astronomers led by Gege Wang of the Guangzhou University in China observed the three flares using the LAT.

In this paper, we analyze the LAT data and look at the variability and behavior of quasar 3C279 during the three gamma-ray flares of the year. In the LAT light curve, we pronounced three flares in the range of 0.1–300 GeV.

The flares F1 and F3 did not show fast components or profiles, so Wang's team only made a minute timescale binned light curve and a gamma-ray analysis. During previous flaring activity in 2015, the peak of the gamma-ray flux in F2 was lower than it is today.

There are no clear breaks in thegamma-ray spectrum of 3C279 in the flaring or quiescent states. According to the finding, the blazar's energy may be due to the inverse Compton process of scattering the dusty torus.

The SED was calculated for the "pre-outburst," "flare" and "post-flare" states of the flare. The blazar's magnetization ratio and energy density ratio were calculated. The results show that the flare F2 may have been caused by an injection of higher-energy electrons.

We suggest an injection of higher-energy electrons from outside the blob. The authors of the paper concluded that the electrons were injected into the blob in a very short time.

The publication of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific has more information. There is a book titled "1088/1538-3873/ac98e0". There is an arXiv.org/abs.

The Science X Network is in place.

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