FERMI GAMMA-RAY SPACE TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS OF THE GAMMA-RAY OUTBURST FROM 3C454.3 IN NOVEMBER 2010

A A Abdo,C Sgrò,C D Dermer,A Bouvier,J Bregeon,R Rando,E Nuss,A Allafort,B Lott,M Roth,I A Grenier,B Berenji,S Cutini,S Buson,T Glanzman,J G Thayer,P Fusco,A Reimer,P A Caraveo,K S Wood,A De Angelis,C C Cheung,J Knödlseder,N Gehrels,R A Cameron,S Ciprini,V Pelassa,F Longo,P Lubrano,D F Torres,C Cecchi,P Fortin,A P Waite,T Ohsugi,R Dubois,D Horan,S Murgia,D J Thompson,A Chekhtman,P F Michelson,S J Fegan,W Mitthumsiri,V Vitale,P Wang,A Okumura,M Ziegler,A S Johnson,P S Drell,E Bonamente,Z Yang,M Ackermann,F Loparco,A Makeev,D Bastieri,J M Casandjian,M Pesce-Rollins,R Claus,V Vasileiou,J E Grove,S W Digel,F Gargano,T A Porter,S Guiriec,D Paneque,E Orlando,D Hadasch,H Katagiri,M Hayashida,W Mcconville,T Mizuno,M Pierbattista,G Spandre,J P Norris,S Ritz,G Tosti,T Takahashi,N Vilchez,L Latronico,F Giordano,D Dumora,P L Nolan,M Kuss,J F Ormes,F D’Ammando,L Escande,M N Mazziotta,J E Mcenery,E Hays,R D Blandford,M S Strickman,G Barbiellini,J Vandenbroucke,E Do Couto E Silva,G A Caliandro,E J Siskind,E C Ferrara,S Rainò,S Germani,P Giommi,R Bellazzini,S.-H Lee,J B Thayer,S Razzaque,G Godfrey,A Tramacere,M Giroletti,F De Palma,D Gasparrini,R Buehler,G Vianello,P D Smith,M N Lovellette,A Morselli,E Troja,J Ballet,E D Bloom,J Kataoka,B L Winer,A W Borgland,J Conrad,J Chiang,C Favuzzi,I V Moskalenko,F Piron,T Kamae,E Charles,P Spinelli,G M Madejski,H Takahashi,M Ajello,M E Monzani,N Giglietto,M Brigida,E Cavazzuti,L Tibaldo,R Itoh,C Monte,Seiji Nishino ,H F-W Sadrozinski ,Stefan Larsson ,Yasuo Tanaka ,J Landé ,Jeffrey D Scargle ,M Naumann-Godó ,А А Моисеев ,Takaaki Tanaka ,T Schalk ,Luca Baldini ,G Jøhannesson ,Pascal Bruel ,Yasushi Fukazawa ,David Sánchez

doi:10.1088/2041-8205/733/2/l26

Abstract

The flat-spectrum radio quasar 3C 454.3 underwent an extraordinary 5-day gamma-ray outburst in November 2010 where the daily flux measured with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) at photon energies E>100 MeV reached (66+/-2) x 10^-6 ph cm^-2 s^-1. This is a factor of 3 higher than its previous maximum flux recorded in December 2009 and ~5 times brighter than the Vela pulsar, which is normally the brightest source in the gamma-ray sky. The 3-hr peak flux was (85+/-5) x 10^-6 ph cm^-2 s^-1, corresponding to an apparent isotropic luminosity of 2.1+/-0.2 10^50 erg s^-1, the highest ever recorded for a blazar. In this paper, we investigate the features of this exceptional event in the gamma-ray band of the Fermi-LAT. In contrast to previous flares of the same source observed with the Fermi-LAT, clear spectral changes are observed during the flare.

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