Gamma-ray flares from relativistic magnetic reconnection in the jet of the quasar 3C 279

Abstract

Spinning black holes in the centres of galaxies can release powerful magnetised jets. When the jets are observed at angles of less than a few degrees to the line-of-sight, they are called blazars, showing variable non-thermal emission across the electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to gamma rays. It is commonly believed that shock waves are responsible for this dissipation of jet energy. Here we show that gamma-ray observations of the blazar 3C 279 with the space-borne telescope Fermi-LAT reveal a characteristic peak-in-peak variability pattern on time scales of minutes expected if the particle acceleration is instead due to relativistic magnetic reconnection. The absence of gamma-ray pair attenuation shows that particle acceleration takes place at a distance of ten thousand gravitational radii from the black hole where the fluid dynamical kink instability drives plasma turbulence.

Statistical properties of flux variations in blazar light curves at GeV and TeV energies

“…In this case the rise and decay are not resolved enough, suggesting that the true variability (possibly tracing back to the physical process) takes place on even smaller timescales than days. Fermi-LAT has, for instance, observed variability within several minutes [15] and FACT detected intranight variability for Mrk 421 [16]. Thus, it is very likely that the variations in the daily binned GeV and TeV light curves are superpositions of individual, smaller flux fluctuations.…”

天体物理中自组织临界现象的观测和模拟

“…Birkeland 电流和磁层亚暴的相关性 [115] , MFR 在恒星 际 中 表 现 为 纤维状结构 [116,117] , 磁 陀 星周围环绕有 MFR [118,119] , 黑洞吸积盘以及喷流结构中 可能存在 MFR [120] 等. 因此, 发展基于 MFR 的三维 CA 模型对 于理解天体爆发的 SOC 过程具有普遍的适用性.…”

Magnetic field annihilation and charged particle acceleration in ultra-relativistic laser plasmas

“…The temporal evolution of the γ -ray shows that a strong non-stationary electric field accelerates the corresponding emitting electrons. Theoretical and numerical analyses propose that the electron acceleration via the relativistic MR is the potential mechanism explaining this phenomenon [42][43][44][45] . It arouses an interesting challenge how we can prove such hypothesis by modelling the astrophysical processes under the conditions of terrestrial laboratories.…”