Multi-wavelength Observations of the Flaring Gamma-ray Blazar 3C 66A in 2008 October

Abstract

The BL Lacertae object 3C 66A was detected in a flaring state by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) and VERITAS in 2008 October. In addition to these gamma-ray observations, F-GAMMA, GASP-WEBT, PAIRITEL, MDM, ATOM, Swift, and Chandra provided radio to X-ray coverage. The available light curves show variability and, in particular, correlated flares are observed in the optical and Fermi-LAT gamma-ray band. The resulting spectral energy distribution can be well fit using standard leptonic models with and without an external radiation field for inverse-Compton scattering. It is found, however, that only the model with an external radiation field can accommodate the intra-night variability observed at optical wavelengths.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in ApJ. 32 pages, 8 figures and 5 tables. Corresponding author: Luis C. Reyes ([email protected])

References in corpus (13)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• The Large Area Telescope on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Mission
• The Spectral Energy Distribution of Fermi bright blazars
• Modeling the Extragalactic Background Light from Stars and Dust
• Intergalactic Photon Spectra from the Far IR to the UV Lyman Limit for $0<z<6$ and the Optical Depth of the Universe to High Energy Gamma-Rays
• Spectral Properties of Bright Fermi-detected Blazars in the Gamma-ray Band
• An evolutionary scenario for blazar unification
• X-Ray Spectral Variability Signatures of Flares in BL Lac Objects
• VERITAS Observations of the gamma-Ray Binary LS I +61 303
• Fermi observations of TeV-selected AGN
• The Parsec-Scale Jets of the TeV Blazars H 1426+428, 1ES 1959+650, and PKS 2155-304: 2001-2004
• Observations of the BL Lac Object 3C 66A with STACEE
• The WEBT Campaign on the Intermediate BL Lac Object 3C66A in 2007-2008

Cited by in corpus (64)

• Leptonic and Hadronic Modeling of Fermi-Detected Blazars
• 2FHL: The Second Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources
• The Extragalactic Background Light and the Gamma-ray Opacity of the Universe
• Blazars as Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray Sources: Implications for TeV Gamma-Ray Observations
• The First Fermi-LAT Catalog of Sources Above 10 GeV
• The structure and emission model of the relativistic jet in the quasar 3C 279 inferred from radio to high-energy gamma-ray observations in 2008-2010
• X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Polarization in Leptonic and Hadronic Jet Models of Blazars
• Equipartition Gamma-Ray Blazars and the Location of the Gamma-Ray Emission Site in 3C 279
• Detection of the cosmic γ-ray horizon from multiwavelength observations of blazars
• Hadronic models of blazars require a change of the accretion paradigm
• Kinematics of and emission from helically orbiting blobs in a relativistic magnetized jet
• Multi-wavelength variability properties of Fermi blazar S5 0716+714
• First NuSTAR Observations of Mrk 501 within a Radio to TeV Multi-Instrument Campaign
• High energy neutrino flux from individual blazar flares
• The Chandra Survey of Extragalactic Sources in the 3CR Catalog: X-ray Emission from Nuclei, Jets, and Hotspots in the Chandra Archival Observations
• Fermi-LAT observations of the exceptional gamma-ray outbursts of 3C 273 in September 2009
• The physical properties of Fermi BL Lac objects jets
• Quasi-periodic behaviour in the optical and γ-ray light curves of blazars 3C 66A and B2 1633+38
• Axion-like particle imprint in cosmological very-high-energy sources
• Modelling the VHE flare of 3C 279 using one zone leptonic model
• Gamma-Ray Observational Properties of TeV-Detected Blazars
• On weak redshift dependence of gamma-ray spectra of distant blazars
• High Energy Emission Processes in OJ 287 during 2009 Flare
• Discovery of a new TeV gamma-ray source: VER J0521+211
• KVN observations suggest multiple $\gamma$-ray emission regions in 3C 84
• The F-GAMMA program: Multi-frequency study of Active Galactic Nuclei in the Fermi era. Program description and the first 2.5 years of monitoring
• The 3CR Chandra snapshot survey: extragalactic radio sources with 0.5$<z<$1.0
• Long-term optical polarization variability of the tev blazar 1es~1959+650
• Long term observations of B2 1215+30 with VERITAS
• Optical and Radio variability of the Northern VHE gamma-ray emitting BL Lac objects
• Modeling the hard TeV spectra of blazars 1ES 0229+200 and 3C 66A with an internal absorption scenario
• On the Redshift of the Very High Energy Blazar 3C 66A
• On the origin of the soft photons of the high synchrotron peaked blazar : PKS 1424+240
• Optical Variability of TeV Blazars on long time-scales
• The physical properties of \textit{Fermi} TeV BL Lac objects jets
• MAPCAT: Monitoring AGN with Polarimetry at the Calar Alto Telescopes
• Studies of active galactic nuclei with CTA
• Testing CIBER cosmic infrared background measurements and axionlike particles with observations of TeV blazars
• Emitting Electron Spectra and Acceleration Processes in the Jet of PKS 0447-439
• Optical intra-day variability in 3C 66A: 10 years of observations
• First-generation Science Cases for Ground-based Terahertz Telescopes
• Discovery of Very High Energy Gamma Rays from 1ES 1440+122
• A search of CO emission lines in blazars: the low molecular gas content of BL Lac objects compared to quasars
• Study of correlation between optical flux and polarization variations in BL Lac objects
• Search for high energy γ-ray emission from galaxies of the Local Group with Fermi/LAT
• A time-dependent particle acceleration and emission model: Understanding the particle spectral evolution and blazar flares
• Can Turbulence Dominate Depolarization of Optical Blazars?
• The Fermi-LAT view of the changing-look blazar OQ 334
• From Radio to TeV: The surprising Spectral Energy Distribution of AP Librae
• VERITAS Observations of Six Bright, Hard-Spectrum Fermi-LAT Blazars
• Constraining the redshifts of TeV BL Lac objects
• Optical circular polarization induced by axionlike particles in blazars
• A Study of the Long-term Spectral Variations of 3C 66A Observed with the Fermi and Kanata Telescopes
• Synchrotron Emission from VHE Gamma-Ray Induced Pair Cascades in AGN Environments
• Multi-wavelength emission from 3C 66A: clues on its redshift and gamma-ray emission location
• Infrared emission from dust and the spectral features of extragalactic gamma-ray sources
• Multi-epoch, multi-frequency VLBI study of the parsec-scale jet in the blazar 3C 66A
• A Universal Energy Relation between synchrotron and Synchrotron Self-Compton radiation in GRBs and Blazars
• Is BZB J1450+5201 the most distant $\gamma$-ray BL Lacertae object?
• Very-high-energy gamma-ray detection and long-term multi-wavelength view of the flaring blazar B2 1811+31
• Universal Peaks Ratio In The Spectral Energy Density Of Double Hump Blazars, Gamma Ray Bursts, And Microquasars
• Simultaneously unveiling the EBL and intrinsic spectral parameters of gamma-ray sources with Hamiltonian Monte Carlo
• High-resolution monitoring of parsec-scale jets in the Fermi era
• A GeV Gamma-Ray Spectral Excess in the Fermi Blazar 4FGL J0136.5+3906