arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M. Giroletti.
This is a White Paper in support of the mission concept of the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT), proposed as a medium-sized ESA mission. We discuss the potential of LOFT for the study of radio-loud Active Galactic Nuclei. For a summary, we refer to the paper.
The nearby radio galaxy M87 offers a unique opportunity for exploring the connection between gamma-ray production and jet formation at an unprecedented linear resolution. However, the origin and location of the gamma-rays in this source is still elusive. Based on previous radio/TeV correlation events, the unresolved jet base (radio core) and the peculiar knot HST-1 at >120 pc from the nucleus are proposed as candidate site(s) of gamma-ray production. Here we report our intensive, high-resolution radio monitoring observations of the M87 jet with the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) and the European VLBI Network (EVN) from February 2011 to October 2012. During this period, an elevated level of the M87 flux is reported at TeV with VERITAS. We detected a remarkable flux increase in the radio core with VERA at 22/43 GHz coincident with the VHE activity. Meanwhile, HST-1 remained quiescent in terms of its flux density and structure at radio. These results strongly suggest that the TeV gamma-ray activity in 2012 originates in the jet base within 0.03 pc (projected) from the central supermassive black hole.
Despite targets of many multiwavelength campaigns, the main physical processes at work in AGN are still under debate. In particular the origin of the radio emission and the mechanisms involved are among the open questions in astrophysics. In the radio-loud AGN population the radio emission is linked to the presence of bipolar outflows of relativistic jets. However, the large majority of the AGN population do not form powerful highly-relativistic jets on kpc scales and are characterized by radio luminosity up to 10^23 W/Hz at 1.4 GHz, challenging our knowledge on the physical processes at the basis of the radio emission in radio-quiet objects. The main mechanisms proposed so far are synchrotron radiation from mildly relativistic mini-jets, thermal cyclo-synchrotron emission by low-efficiency accretion flow (like ADAF or ADIOS), or thermal free-free emission from the X-ray heated corona or wind. The difficulty in understanding the main mechanism involved is related to the weakness of these objects, which precludes the study of non-local radio-quiet AGN. Multifrequency, high-sensitivity radio observations are crucial to constrain the nature of the power engine, and they may help in distinguishing between the contribution from star formation and AGN activity. The advent of the SKA, with its sub-arcsecond resolution and unprecedented sensitivity will allow us to investigate these processes in radio-quiet AGN, even at high redshift for the first time. Both the broad-band radio spectrum and the polarization information will help us in disentangling between non-thermal and thermal origin of the radio emission. The jump in sensitivity of a few order of magnitudes at the (sub-)uJy level will enable us to detect radio emission from a large number of radio-quiet AGN at high redshift, providing a fundamental step in our understanding of their cosmological evolution. (Abridged)
The γ-ray sky can be decomposed into individually detected sources, diffuse emission attributed to the interactions of Galactic cosmic rays with gas and radiation fields, and a residual all-sky emission component commonly called the isotropic diffuse γ-ray background (IGRB). The IGRB comprises all extragalactic emissions too faint or too diffuse to be resolved in a given survey, as well as any residual Galactic foregrounds that are approximately isotropic. The first IGRB measurement with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi) used 10 months of sky-survey data and considered an energy range between 200 MeV and 100 GeV. Improvements in event selection and characterization of cosmic-ray backgrounds, better understanding of the diffuse Galactic emission, and a longer data accumulation of 50 months, allow for a refinement and extension of the IGRB measurement with the LAT, now covering the energy range from 100 MeV to 820 GeV. The IGRB spectrum shows a significant high-energy cutoff feature, and can be well described over nearly four decades in energy by a power law with exponential cutoff having a spectral index of $2.32\pm0.02$ and a break energy of $(279\pm52)$ GeV using our baseline diffuse Galactic emission model. The total intensity attributed to the IGRB is $(7.2\pm0.6) \times 10^{-6}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ sr$^{-1}$ above 100 MeV, with an additional $+15$%/$-30$% systematic uncertainty due to the Galactic diffuse foregrounds.
We analyzed data in polarized intensity obtained with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at twelve epochs (one observation per month from January to December 2011) at 15, 24, and 43 GHz. For the absolute orientation of the electric vector position angles (EVPA) we used the D-terms method. We also used gamma-ray data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope on weekly time bins throughout 2011. The source shows polarized emission, and its properties vary with time, frequency, and location along the jet. The core mean polarization fraction is generally between 1% and 2%, with a 4% peak at 43 GHz in March; the polarization angle is variable, mainly at 15 GHz, where it changes frequently, and less so at 43 GHz, where it oscillates in the range 114 - 173 deg. The jet polarization properties are more stable, with a fractional polarization of around 16% and a polarization angle nearly perpendicular to the jet axis. The average flux and photon index at gamma-ray energies are (17.7+-0.5)x10^8 ph cm^-2 s^-1 and the photon index is 1.77+-0.02. The gamma-ray light curve shows variability, with a main peak that appears to be associated with the peak in the core polarized emission at 43 GHz, as well as with the total intensity light curve. A discrete correlation function analysis yields a correlation coefficient of 0.54 at zero delay, with a significance level above 99.7%. We accurately determine the polarization properties of Mrk 421, both in the core and in the jet region. The radio and gamma-ray light curves are correlated. The observed EVPA variability at 15 GHz is partly due to opacity and partly to a variable Faraday rotation effect. To explain the residual variability of the intrinsic polarization angle and the low degree of polarization in the core region, we invoke a blend of variable cross-polarized subcomponents with different polarization properties within the beam.
We report results of a multiband monitoring campaign of the flat spectrum radio quasar TXS 0536+145 at redshift 2.69. This source was detected during a very high gamma-ray activity state in 2012 March by the Large Area Telescope on board Fermi, becoming the gamma-ray flaring blazar at the highest redshift detected so far. At the peak of the flare the source reached an apparent isotropic gamma-ray luminosity of 6.6 x 10^49 erg/s which is comparable to the values achieved by the most luminous blazars. This activity triggered radio-to-X-rays monitoring observations by Swift, Very Long Baseline Array, European VLBI Network, and Medicina single-dish telescope. Significant variability was observed from radio to X-rays supporting the identification of the gamma-ray source with TXS 0536+145. Both the radio and gamma-ray light curves show a similar behaviour, with the gamma-rays leading the radio variability with a time lag of about 4-6 months. The luminosity increase is associated with a flattening of the radio spectrum. No new superluminal component associated with the flare was detected in high resolution parsec-scale radio images. During the flare the gamma-ray spectrum seems to deviate from a power law, showing a curvature that was not present during the average activity state. The gamma-ray properties of TXS 0536+145 are consistent with those shown by the high-redshift gamma-ray blazar population.
Very long baseline interferometry at millimetre/submillimetre wavelengths (mmVLBI) offers the highest achievable spatial resolution at any wavelength in astronomy. The anticipated inclusion of ALMA as a phased array into a global VLBI network will bring unprecedented sensitivity and a transformational leap in capabilities for mmVLBI. Building on years of pioneering efforts in the US and Europe the ongoing ALMA Phasing Project (APP), a US-led international collaboration with MPIfR-led European contributions, is expected to deliver a beamformer and VLBI capability to ALMA by the end of 2014 (APP: Fish et al. 2013, arXiv:1309.3519). This report focuses on the future use of mmVLBI by the international users community from a European viewpoint. Firstly, it highlights the intense science interest in Europe in future mmVLBI observations as compiled from the responses to a general call to the European community for future research projects. A wide range of research is presented that includes, amongst others: - Imaging the event horizon of the black hole at the centre of the Galaxy - Testing the theory of General Relativity an/or searching for alternative theories - Studying the origin of AGN jets and jet formation - Cosmological evolution of galaxies and BHs, AGN feedback - Masers in the Milky Way (in stars and star-forming regions) - Extragalactic emission lines and astro-chemistry - Redshifted absorption lines in distant galaxies and study of the ISM and circumnuclear gas - Pulsars, neutron stars, X-ray binaries - Testing cosmology - Testing fundamental physical constants
The discovery of rapidly variable Very High Energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma-ray emission from 4C +21.35 (PKS 1222+216) by MAGIC on 2010 June 17, triggered by the high activity detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) in high energy (HE; E > 100 MeV) gamma-rays, poses intriguing questions on the location of the gamma-ray emitting region in this flat spectrum radio quasar. We present multifrequency data of 4C +21.35 collected from centimeter to VHE during 2010 to investigate the properties of this source and discuss a possible emission model. The first hint of detection at VHE was observed by MAGIC on 2010 May 3, soon after a gamma-ray flare detected by Fermi-LAT that peaked on April 29. The same emission mechanism may therefore be responsible for both the HE and VHE emission during the 2010 flaring episodes. Two optical peaks were detected on 2010 April 20 and June 30, close in time but not simultaneous with the two gamma-ray peaks, while no clear connection was observed between the X-ray an gamma-ray emission. An increasing flux density was observed in radio and mm bands from the beginning of 2009, in accordance with the increasing gamma-ray activity observed by Fermi-LAT, and peaking on 2011 January 27 in the mm regime (230 GHz). We model the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 4C +21.35 for the two periods of the VHE detection and a quiescent state, using a one-zone model with the emission coming from a very compact region outside the broad line region. The three SEDs can be fit with a combination of synchrotron self-Compton and external Compton emission of seed photons from a dust torus, changing only the electron distribution parameters between the epochs. The fit of the optical/UV part of the spectrum for 2010 April 29 seems to favor an inner disk radius of <6 gravitational radii, as one would expect from a prograde-rotating Kerr black hole.
We report our intensive radio monitoring observations of the jet in M87 with the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA) and the European VLBI Network (EVN) from February 2011 to October 2012, together with contemporaneous high-energy gamma-ray light curves obtained by the Fermi-LAT. During this period, an elevated level of the M87 flux is reported at VHE gamma rays. We detected a remarkable increase of the radio flux density from the unresolved jet base (radio core) with VERA at 22 and 43GHz coincident with the VHE activity. Meanwhile, we confirmed with EVN at 5GHz that HST-1 (an alternative gamma-ray production candidate site) remained quiescent in terms of its flux density and structure. These results in the radio bands strongly suggest that the VHE gamma-ray activity in 2012 originates in the jet base within 0.03pc or 56 Schwarzschild radii from the central supermassive black hole. We further conducted VERA astrometry for the M87 core during the flaring period, and detected core shifts between 22 and 43GHz. We also discovered a clear frequency-dependent evolution of the radio core flare at 43, 22 and 5GHz; the radio flux density increased more rapidly at higher frequencies with a larger amplitude, and the light curves clearly showed a time-lag between the peaks at 22 and 43GHz. This indicates that a new radio-emitting component was created near the black hole in the period of the VHE event, and then propagated outward with progressively decreasing synchrotron opacity. By combining these results, we estimated an apparent speed of the newborn component, and derived a sub-luminal speed of less than ~0.2c. This value is significantly slower than the super-luminal (~1.1c) features that appeared from the core during the prominent VHE flaring event in 2008, suggesting that the stronger VHE activity can be associated with the production of the higher Lorentz factor jet.
Nearly one-third of the gamma-ray sources detected by Fermi are still unidentified, despite significant recent progress in this effort. On the other hand, all the gamma-ray extragalactic sources associated in the second Fermi-LAT catalog have a radio counterpart. Motivated by this observational evidence we investigate all the radio sources of the major radio surveys that lie within the positional uncertainty region of the unidentified gamma-ray sources (UGSs) at 95% level of confidence. First we search for their infrared counterparts in the all-sky survey performed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and then we analyze their IR colors in comparison with those of the known gamma-ray blazars. We propose a new approach, based on a 2-dimensional kernel density estimation (KDE) technique in the single [3.4]-[4.6]-[12] micron WISE color-color plot, replacing the constraint imposed in our previous investigations on the detection at 22 micron of each potential IR counterpart of the UGSs with associated radio emission. The main goal of this analysis is to find distant gamma-ray blazar candidates that, being too faint at 22 micron, are not detected by WISE and thus are not selected by our purely IR based methods. We find fifty-five UGS's likely correspond to radio sources with blazar-like IR signatures. Additional eleven UGSs having, blazar-like IR colors, have been found within the sample of sources found with deep recent ATCA observations.
A significant fraction ($\sim 30$ %) of the gamma-ray sources listed in the second $\textit{Fermi}$ LAT (2FGL) catalog is still of unknown origin, being not yet associated with counterparts at lower energies. Using the available information at lower energies and optical spectroscopy on the selected counterparts of these gamma-ray objects we can pinpoint their exact nature. Here we present a pilot project pointing to assess the effectiveness of the several classification methods developed to select gamma-ray blazar candidates. To this end, we report optical spectroscopic observations of a sample of 5 gamma-ray blazar candidates selected on the basis of their infrared WISE colors or of their low-frequency radio properties. Blazars come in two main classes: BL Lacs and FSRQs, showing similar optical spectra except for the stronger emission lines of the latter. For three of our sources the almost featureless optical spectra obtained confirm their BL Lac nature, while for the source WISEJ022051.24+250927.6 we observe emission lines with equivalent width $EW\sim 31$ $Å$, identifying it as a FSRQ with $z = 0.48$. The source WISEJ064459.38+603131.7, although not featuring a clear radio counterpart, shows a blazar-like spectrum with weak emission lines with $EW \sim 7$ $Å$, yielding a redshift estimate of $z=0.36$. In addition we report optical spectroscopic observations of 4 WISE sources associated with known gamma-ray blazars without a firm classification or redshift estimate. For all of these latter sources we confirm a BL Lac classification, with a tentative redshift estimate for the source WISEJ100800.81+062121.2 of $z = 0.65$.
A significant fraction ($\sim 30$ %) of the high-energy gamma-ray sources listed in the second $\textit{Fermi}$ LAT (2FGL) catalog are still of unknown origin, being not yet associated with counterparts at lower energies. In order to investigate the nature of these enigmatic sources, we present here an extensive search of X-ray sources lying in the positional uncertainty region of a selected sample of these Unidentified Gamma-ray Sources (UGSs) that makes use of all available observations performed by the $\textit{Swift}$ X-ray Telescope before March 31, 2013, available for 205 UGSs. To detect the fainter sources, we merged all the observations covering the $\textit{Fermi}$ LAT positional uncertainty region at 95 % level of confidence of each UGSs. This yields a catalog of 357 X-ray sources, finding {candidate} X-ray counterparts for $\sim 70$ % of the selected sample. In particular, 25 % of the UGSs feature a single X-ray source within their positional uncertainty region while 45 % have multiple X-ray sources. For each X-ray source we also looked in the corresponding $\textit{Swift}$ UVOT merged images for optical and ultraviolet counterparts, also performing source photometry. We found ultraviolet-optical correspondences for $\sim 70$ % of the X-ray sources. We searched several major radio, infrared, optical and ultraviolet surveys for possible counterparts within the positional error of the sources in the X-ray catalog to obtain additional information on their nature. Applying the kernel density estimator technique to infrared colors of WISE counterparts of our X-ray sources we select 6 $γ$-ray blazar candidates. In addition, comparing our results with previous analyses, we select 11 additional $γ$-ray blazar candidates.
Current theories predict relativistic hadronic particle populations in clusters of galaxies in addition to the already observed relativistic leptons. In these scenarios hadronic interactions give rise to neutral pions which decay into $γ$ rays, that are potentially observable with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi space telescope. We present a joint likelihood analysis searching for spatially extended $γ$-ray emission at the locations of 50 galaxy clusters in 4 years of Fermi-LAT data under the assumption of the universal cosmic-ray model proposed by Pinzke & Pfrommer (2010). We find an excess at a significance of $2.7σ$ which upon closer inspection is however correlated to individual excess emission towards three galaxy clusters: Abell 400, Abell 1367 and Abell 3112. We discuss these cases in detail and conservatively attribute the emission to unmodeled background (for example, radio galaxies within the clusters). Through the combined analysis of 50 clusters we exclude hadronic injection efficiencies in simple hadronic models above 21% and establish limits on the cosmic-ray to thermal pressure ratio within the virial radius, $R_{200}$, to be below 1.2-1.4% depending on the morphological classification. In addition we derive new limits on the $γ$-ray flux from individual clusters in our sample.
Recent accurate measurements of cosmic-ray (CR) species by ATIC-2, CREAM, and PAMELA reveal an unexpected hardening in the proton and He spectra above a few hundred GeV, a gradual softening of the spectra just below a few hundred GeV, and a harder spectrum of He compared to that of protons. These newly-discovered features may offer a clue to the origin of high-energy CRs. We use the ${\it Fermi}$ Large Area Telescope observations of the $γ$-ray emission from the Earth's limb for an indirect measurement of the local spectrum of CR protons in the energy range $\sim 90~$GeV-$6~$TeV (derived from a photon energy range $15~$GeV-$1~$TeV). Our analysis shows that single power law and broken power law spectra fit the data equally well and yield a proton spectrum with index $2.68 \pm 0.04$ and $2.61 \pm 0.08$ above $\sim 200~$GeV, respectively.
We present a study of sub-pc scale radio structure of the radio galaxy 3C 84/NGC 1275 based on the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) data at 43 GHz. We discover a limb-brightening in the "restarted" jet associated with the 2005 radio outburst. In the 1990s, the jet structure was ridge-brightening rather than limb-brightening, despite the observations being done with similar angular resolution. This indicates that the transverse jet structure has changed recently. This change in the morphology shows an interesting agreement with the $γ$-ray flux increase, i.e., the $γ$-ray flux in 1990s was at least seven times lower than the current one. One plausible explanation for the limb-brightening is the velocity structure of the jet in the context of the stratified jet, which is a successful scenario to explain the $γ$-ray emission in some active galactic nuclei (AGNs). If this is the case, the change in apparent transverse structure might be caused by the change in the transverse velocity structure. We argue the possibility that the transition from ridge-brightening to limb-brightening is related to the $γ$-ray time variability on the timescale of decades. We also discuss the collimation profile of the jet.
The dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies of the Milky Way are some of the most dark-matter-dominated objects known. Due to their proximity, high dark matter content, and lack of astrophysical backgrounds, dwarf spheroidal galaxies are widely considered to be among the most promising targets for the indirect detection of dark matter via gamma rays. Here we report on gamma-ray observations of 25 Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies based on 4 years of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data. None of the dwarf galaxies are significantly detected in gamma rays, and we present gamma-ray flux upper limits between 500 MeV and 500 GeV. We determine the dark matter content of 18 dwarf spheroidal galaxies from stellar kinematic data and combine LAT observations of 15 dwarf galaxies to constrain the dark matter annihilation cross section. We set some of the tightest constraints to date on the the annihilation of dark matter particles with masses between 2 GeV and 10 TeV into prototypical Standard Model channels. We find these results to be robust against systematic uncertainties in the LAT instrument performance, diffuse gamma-ray background modeling, and assumed dark matter density profile.
Using data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), we report the first clear gamma-ray measurement of a delay between flares from the gravitationally lensed images of a blazar. The delay was detected in B0218+357, a known double-image lensed system, during a period of enhanced gamma-ray activity with peak fluxes consistently observed to reach >20-50 times its previous average flux. An auto-correlation function analysis identified a delay in the gamma-ray data of 11.46 +/- 0.16 days (1 sigma) that is ~1 day greater than previous radio measurements. Considering that it is beyond the capabilities of the LAT to spatially resolve the two images, we nevertheless decomposed individual sequences of superposing gamma-ray flares/delayed emissions. In three such ~8-10 day-long sequences within a ~4-month span, considering confusion due to overlapping flaring emission and flux measurement uncertainties, we found flux ratios consistent with ~1, thus systematically smaller than those from radio observations. During the first, best-defined flare, the delayed emission was detailed with a Fermi pointing, and we observed flux doubling timescales of ~3-6 hrs implying as well extremely compact gamma-ray emitting regions.
We report on radio-to-gamma-ray observations during 2011 May-September of PMN J0948+0022, the first narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1) galaxy detected in gamma-rays by Fermi-LAT. Strong variability was observed in gamma-rays, with two flaring periods peaking on 2011 June 20 and July 28. The variability observed in optical and near-infrared seems to have no counterpart in gamma-rays. This different behaviour could be related to a bending and inhomogeneous jet or a turbulent extreme multi-cell scenario. The radio spectra showed a variability pattern typical of relativistic jets. The XMM spectrum shows that the emission from the jet dominates above 2 keV, while a soft X-ray excess is evident in the low-energy part of the X-ray spectrum. Models where the soft emission is partly produced by blurred reflection or Comptonisation of the thermal disc emission provide good fits to the data. The X-ray spectral slope is similar to that found in radio-quiet NLSy1, suggesting that a standard accretion disc is present, as expected from the high accretion rate. Except for the soft X-ray excess, unusual in jet-dominated AGNs, PMN J0948+0022 shows all characteristics of the blazar class.