Fermi-Large Area Telescope observations of the brightest Gamma-ray flare ever detected from CTA 102

Abstract

We present a multi-wavelength study of the FSRQ CTA 102 using Fermi-LAT and simultaneous Swift-XRT/UVOT observations. The Fermi-LAT telescope detected one of the brightest flares from this object during Sep, 2016 to Mar, 2017. In the 190 days of observation period the source underwent four major flares. A detailed analysis of the temporal and spectral properties of these flares indicates the flare at MJD 57751.594 has a $\gamma$-ray flux of (30.12$\pm$4.48)$\times 10^{-6}$ ph cm${}^{-2}$ s${}^{-1}$ (from 90 minutes binning) in the energy range of 0.1--300 GeV. This has been found to be the highest flux ever detected from CTA 102. Time dependent leptonic modelling of the pre-flare, rising state, flares and decaying state has been done. A single emission region of size $6.5\times 10^{16}$ cm has been used in our work to explain the multi-wavelength spectral energy distributions. During flares the luminosity in electrons increases nearly seventy times compared to the pre-flare state.

19 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for Publication in ApJ

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Cited by in corpus (22)

• The magnetic field structure in CTA 102 from high resolution mm-VLBI observations during the flaring state in 2016-2017
• Flare-like Variability of the Mg~II $\lambda$2798 Å Emission Line and UV Fe~II band in the Blazar CTA~102
• Two-zone emission modeling of PKS 1510-089 during the high state of 2015
• Multi-frequency variability study of Ton 599 during high activity of 2017
• Broadband variability and correlation study of 3C 279 during flare of 2017-2018
• Multi-wavelength Analysis and Modeling of OJ 287 During 2017-2020
• Modeling the time variable spectral energy distribution of the blazar CTA 102 from 2008 to 2022
• Correlation between optical flux and polarization variations in Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars on diverse timescales
• Gamma-Ray Flares in Long Term Light Curve of 3C 454.3
• Investigation of the Gamma-ray Spectrum of CTA 102 During the Exceptional Flaring State in 2016-2017
• Magnetic Field Strengths of the Synchrotron Self-Absorption Region in the Jet of CTA 102 During Radio Flares
• Broadband study of OQ 334 during its flaring state
• Diversity of gamma-ray and Radio Variabilities of Bright Blazars and Implications for gamma-ray Emission Location
• Broadband study of BL Lac during flare of 2020: Spectral evolution and emergence of HBL component
• PeV-EeV neutrinos from gamma-ray blazars due to ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray propagation
• The Fermi-LAT view of the changing-look blazar OQ 334
• Gamma-ray flares and broadband spectral study of PKS 0402-362
• Broadband Spectro-temporal Study on Blazar TXS 1700+685
• Gamma-ray flares from the jet of the blazar CTA 102 in 2016-2018
• The Long-Lasting Activity in the Flat Spectrum Radio Quasar (FSRQ) CTA~102
• Multiwavelength temporal and spectral study of TeV blazar 1ES 1727+502 during 2014 to 2021
• Measurement of High Energy Gamma Rays from 200 MeV to 1 TeV with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station