The Bright $γ$-ray Flare of 3C 279 in June 2015: AGILE Detection and Multifrequency Follow-up Observations
astro-ph.HE
/ Authors
C. Pittori, F. Lucarelli, F. Verrecchia, C. M. Raiteri, M. Villata, V. Vittorini, M. Tavani, S. Puccetti, M. Perri, I. Donnarumma
and 37 more authors
S. Vercellone, J. A. Acosta-Pulido, R. Bachev, E. Benitez, G. A. Borman, M. I. Carnerero, D. Carosati, W. P. Chen, Sh. A. Ehgamberdiev, A. Goded, T. S. Grishina, D. Hiriart, H. Y. Hsiao, S. G. Jorstad, G. N. Kimeridze, E. N. Kopatskaya, O. M. Kurtanidze, S. O. Kurtanidze, V. M. Larionov, L. V. Larionova, A. P. Marscher, D. O. Mirzaqulov, D. A. Morozova
/ Abstract
We report the AGILE detection and the results of the multifrequency follow-up observations of a bright $γ$-ray flare of the blazar 3C 279 in June 2015. We use AGILE-GRID and Fermi-LAT $γ$-ray data, together with Swift-XRT, Swift-UVOT, and ground-based GASP-WEBT optical observations, including polarization information, to study the source variability and the overall spectral energy distribution during the $γ$-ray flare. The $γ$-ray flaring data, compared with as yet unpublished simultaneous optical data which allow to set constraints on the big blue bump disk luminosity, show very high Compton dominance values of $\sim 100$, with a ratio of $γ$-ray to optical emission rising by a factor of three in a few hours. The multi-wavelength behavior of the source during the flare challenges one-zone leptonic theoretical models. The new observations during the June 2015 flare are also compared with already published data and non-simultaneous historical 3C 279 archival data.