916 research outputs found

    Discovery of gamma-ray emission from a strongly lobe-dominated quasar 3C 275.1

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    We systematically analyze the 6-year {\it Fermi}/LAT data of the lobe-dominated quasars (LDQs) in the complete LDQ sample from 3CRR survey and report the discovery of high-energy γ\gamma-ray emission from 3C 275.1. The γ\gamma-ray emission of 3C 207 is confirmed and significant variability of the lightcurve is identified. We do not find statistically significant γ\gamma-ray emission from other LDQs. 3C 275.1 is the known γ\gamma-ray quasar with the lowest core dominance parameter (i.e., R=0.11R=0.11). We also show that both the northern radio hotspot and parsec jet models can reasonably reproduce the γ\gamma-ray data. The parsec jet model, however, is favored by the potential γ\gamma-ray variability at the timescale of months. We suggest that some dimmer γ\gamma-ray LDQs will be detected in the future and LDQs could contribute non-negligibly to the extragalactic γ\gamma-ray background.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables; ApJ in pres

    Detection of gamma-ray emission from the Coma cluster with Fermi Large Area Telescope and tentative evidence for an extended spatial structure

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    Many galaxy clusters have giant halos of non-thermal radio emission, indicating the presence of relativistic electrons in the clusters. Relativistic protons may also be accelerated by merger and/or accretion shocks in galaxy clusters. These cosmic-ray (CR) electrons and/or protons are expected to produce gamma-rays through inverse-Compton scatterings or inelastic pppp collisions respectively. Despite of intense efforts in searching for high-energy gamma-ray emission from galaxy clusters, conclusive evidence is still missing so far. Here we report the discovery of ≥200\ge 200 MeV gamma-ray emission from the Coma cluster direction with an unbinned likelihood analysis of the 9 years of {\it Fermi}-LAT Pass 8 data. The gamma-ray emission shows a spatial morphology roughly coincident with the giant radio halo, with an apparent excess at the southwest of the cluster. Using the test statistic analysis, we further find tentative evidence that the gamma-ray emission at the Coma center is spatially extended. The extended component has an integral energy flux of ∼2×10−12 erg cm−2 s−1\sim 2\times 10^{-12}{\rm \ erg\ cm^{-2}\ s^{-1}} in the energy range of 0.2 - 300 GeV and the spectrum is soft with a photon index of ≃−2.7\simeq-2.7. Interpreting the gamma-ray emission as arising from CR proton interaction, we find that the volume-averaged value of the CR to thermal pressure ratio in the Coma cluster is about ∼2%\sim 2\%. Our results show that galaxy clusters are likely a new type of GeV gamma-ray sources, and they are probably also giant reservoirs of CR protons.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by Physical Review D, more spatial models for the gamma-ray emission are used, systematic checks on the results are adde
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