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arXiv · 1004.4518

Does the gamma-ray flux of the blazar 3C 454.3 vary on sub-hour timescales?

L. Foschini·G. Tagliaferri·G. Ghisellini·G. Ghirlanda·F. Tavecchio·G. Bonnoli
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Abstract

In the early days of April 2010, the blazar 3C 454.3 (z=0.859) underwent a strong gamma-ray outburst, reaching fluxes (E > 100 MeV) in excess of 10^-5 ph cm^-2 s^-1. The Fermi Gamma ray Space Telescope performed a 200 ks long pointed observation starting from 5 April 2010 19:38 UTC. This allowed us to try probing the variability of the gamma-ray emission on timescales of hours or less. We found the variability on a few hours timescale. On sub-hour timescale we found no evidence of significant variability, although the present statistics is not yet conclusive and further observations are needed.

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L. Foschini, G. Tagliaferri, G. Ghisellini, G. Ghirlanda, F. Tavecchio, G. Bonnoli. 2010-04-26. Does the gamma-ray flux of the blazar 3C 454.3 vary on sub-hour timescales?. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17128.x

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