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Published September 2014 | Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

MAGIC gamma-ray and multi-frequency observations of flat spectrum radio quasar PKS 1510−089 in early 2012

Abstract

Aims. Amongst more than fifty blazars detected in very high energy (VHE, E> 100 GeV) γ rays, only three belong to the subclass of flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs). The detection of FSRQs in the VHE range is challenging, mainly because of their soft spectra in the GeV-TeV regime. MAGIC observed PKS 1510−089 (z = 0.36) starting 2012 February 3 until April 3 during a high activity state in the high energy (HE, E> 100 MeV) γ-ray band observed by AGILE and Fermi. MAGIC observations result in the detection of a source with significance of 6.0 standard deviations (σ). We study the multi-frequency behaviour of the source at the epoch of MAGIC observation, collecting quasi-simultaneous data at radio and optical (GASP-WEBT and F-Gamma collaborations, REM, Steward, Perkins, Liverpool, OVRO, and VLBA telescopes), X-ray (Swift satellite), and HE γ-ray frequencies. Methods. We study the VHE γ-ray emission, together with the multi-frequency light curves, 43 GHz radio maps, and spectral energy distribution (SED) of the source. The quasi-simultaneous multi-frequency SED from the millimetre radio band to VHE γ rays is modelled with a one-zone inverse Compton model. We study two different origins of the seed photons for the inverse Compton scattering, namely the infrared torus and a slow sheath surrounding the jet around the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) core. Results. We find that the VHE γ-ray emission detected from PKS 1510−089 in 2012 February-April agrees with the previous VHE observations of the source from 2009 March-April. We find no statistically significant variability during the MAGIC observations on daily, weekly, or monthly time scales, while the other two known VHE FSRQs (3C 279 and PKS 1222+216) have shown daily scale to sub-hour variability. The γ-ray SED combining AGILE, Fermi and MAGIC data joins smoothly and shows no hint of a break. The multi-frequency light curves suggest a common origin for the millimetre radio and HE γ-ray emission, and the HE γ-ray flaring starts when the new component is ejected from the 43 GHz VLBA core and the studied SED models fit the data well. However, the fast HE γ-ray variability requires that within the modelled large emitting region, more compact regions must exist. We suggest that these observed signatures would be most naturally explained by a turbulent plasma flowing at a relativistic speed down the jet and crossing a standing conical shock.

Additional Information

© 2014 ESO. Received 22 January 2014. Accepted 30 May 2014. Published online 17 September 2014. We would like to thank the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias for the excellent working conditions at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma. The support of the German BMBF and MPG, the Italian INFN, the Swiss National Fund SNF, and the Spanish MICINN is gratefully acknowledged. This work was also supported by the CPAN CSD2007-00042 and MultiDark CSD2009-00064 projects of the Spanish Consolider-Ingenio 2010 programme, by grant DO02-353 of the Bulgarian NSF, by grant 127740 of the Academy of Finland, by the DFG Cluster of Excellence "Origin and Structure of the Universe", by the DFG collaborative Research Centres SFB823/C4 and SFB876/C3, by the Polish MNiSzW grant 745/N-HESS-MAGIC/2010/0, the University of Rijeka Project 13.12.1.3.02, the Croatian Science Foundation Project 09/176 and by JSPS KAKENHI Grants numbers 24000004. J. S. is supported by ERDF and the Spanish MINECO through FPA2012-39502 and JCI-2011-10019 grants. K. S. is supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant number 25800105. The Fermi-LAT Collaboration acknowledges generous ongoing support from a number of agencies and institutes that have supported both the development and the operation of the LAT as well as scientific data analysis. These include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Energy in the United States, the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules in France, the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare in Italy, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in Japan, and the K. A. Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish National Space Board in Sweden. Additional support for science analysis during the operations phase is gratefully acknowledged from the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Italy and the Centre National d'Études Spatiales in France. Astrorivelatore Gamma ad Immagini LEggero (AGILE) is a scientific mission of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) with INFN, INAF and CIFS participation. AGILE research partially supported through the ASI grants I/089/06/2, I/042/10/0 and I/028/12/0. Data from the Steward Observatory spectropolarimetric monitoring project were used. This programme is supported by Fermi Guest Investigator grants NNX08AW56G, NNX09AU10G, and NNX12AO93G. This article is partly based on observations made with the telescopes IAC80 and TCS operated by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in the Spanish Observatorio del Teide on the island of Tenerife. Most of the observations were taken under the rutinary observation programme. The IAC team acknowledges the support from the group of support astronomers and telescope operators of the Observatorio del Teide. The Abastumani team acknowledges financial support of the project FR/638/6-320/12 by the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation under contract 31/77. The OVRO 40-m monitoring programme is supported in part by NASA grants NNX08AW31G and NNX11A043G, and NSF grants AST-0808050 and AST-1109911. The VLBA is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. The research at Boston University (BU) was funded in part by NASA Fermi Guest Investigator grants NNX11AQ03G, NNX11AO37G, and NNX12AO90G. The PRISM camera at Lowell Observatory was developed by K. Janes et al. at BU and Lowell Observatory, with funding from the NSF, BU, and Lowell Observatory. The Submillimeter Array is a joint project between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is funded by the Smithsonian Institution and the Academia Sinica. The Metsähovi team acknowledges the support from the Academy of Finland to our observing projects (numbers 212656, 210338, 121148, and others). This research is partly based on observations with the 100 m telescope of the MPIfR (Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie) at Effelsberg and with the IRAM 30-m telescope. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain). I. Nestoras is funded by the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne.

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August 20, 2023
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