Title

A Luminous and Isolated Gamma-Ray Flare from the Blazar B2 1215+30

Authors

A. U. Abeysekara, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
S. Archambault, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2T8, Canada
A. Archer, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
W. Benbow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Amado, AZ 85645, USA
R. Bird, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
M. Buchovecky, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
J H. Buckley, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
V. Bugaev, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
K. Byrum, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439, USA
P. T. Reynolds, Department of Physical Sciences, Cork Institute of Technology, Bishopstown, Cork, Ireland
et al

Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Astrophysics and Astronomy | External Galaxies | Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy | The Sun and the Solar System

Publication Details

Astrophysical Journal

Abstract

B2 1215+30 is a BL-Lac-type blazar that was first detected at TeV energies by the MAGIC atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes and subsequently confirmed by the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) observatory with data collected between 2009 and 2012. In 2014 February 08, VERITAS detected a large-amplitude flare from B2 1215+30 during routine monitoring observations of the blazar 1ES 1218+304, located in the same field of view. The TeV flux reached 2.4 times the Crab Nebula flux with a variability timescale of . Multiwavelength observations with Fermi-LAT, Swift, and the Tuorla Observatory revealed a correlated high GeV flux state and no significant optical counterpart to the flare, with a spectral energy distribution where the gamma-ray luminosity exceeds the synchrotron luminosity. When interpreted in the framework of a one-zone leptonic model, the observed emission implies a high degree of beaming, with Doppler factor , and an electron population with spectral index .

Recommended Citation

Abeysekara, A.U. et al. (2017). A Luminous and Isolated Gamma-Ray Flare from the Blazar B2 1215+30. The Astrophysical Journal, [online] 836(2), p.205. Available at: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/836/2/205