Multiwavelength observations of a TeV-Flare from W Comae

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive multiwavelength observational study of a significant TeV gamma-ray flare from the blazar W Comae in June 2008, analyzing its spectral energy distribution across various energy bands.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed multiwavelength dataset of a TeV flare from W Comae, combining gamma-ray, X-ray, UV, optical, and radio observations to understand the emission mechanisms.

Findings

Detected a gamma-ray flux three times higher than previous observations.

Constructed the spectral energy distribution during the flare.

Correlated multiwavelength variability across energy bands.

Abstract

We report results from an intensive multiwavelength campaign on the intermediate-frequency-peaked BL Lacertae object W Com (z=0.102) during a strong outburst of very high energy gamma-ray emission in June 2008. The very high energy gamma-ray signal was detected by VERITAS on 2008 June 7-8 with a flux F(>200 GeV) = (5.7+-0.6)x10^-11 cm-2s-1, about three times brighter than during the discovery of gamma-ray emission from W Com by VERITAS in 2008 March. The initial detection of this flare by VERITAS at energies above 200 GeV was followed by observations in high energy gamma-rays (AGILE, E>100 MeV), and X-rays (Swift and XMM-Newton), and at UV, and ground-based optical and radio monitoring through the GASP-WEBT consortium and other observatories. Here we describe the multiwavelength data and derive the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the source from contemporaneous data taken throughout the flare.