Broadband Multi-wavelength Properties of M87 during the 2018 EHT Campaign including a Very High Energy Flaring Episode

TL;DR

This paper reports on a comprehensive multi-wavelength observational campaign of the galaxy M87 during 2018, highlighting a rare very high energy gamma-ray flare and analyzing the source's complex astrophysical processes.

Contribution

It provides the first detection of a VHE gamma-ray flare from M87 since 2010 and combines spectral, temporal, and imaging data to advance understanding of high-energy particle acceleration.

Findings

Detection of a VHE gamma-ray flare with flux doubling in 36 hours

X-ray flux increased by about a factor of two compared to 2017

Evidence of jet position angle variation linked to EHT bright spot

Abstract

The nearby elliptical galaxy M87 contains one of the only two supermassive black holes whose emission surrounding the event horizon has been imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). In 2018, more than two dozen multi-wavelength (MWL) facilities (from radio to gamma-ray energies) took part in the second M87 EHT campaign. The goal of this extensive MWL campaign was to better understand the physics of the accreting black hole M87*, the relationship between the inflow and inner jets, and the high-energy particle acceleration. Understanding the complex astrophysics is also a necessary first step towards performing further tests of general relativity. The MWL campaign took place in April 2018, overlapping with the EHT M87* observations. We present a new, contemporaneous spectral energy distribution (SED) ranging from radio to very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays, as well as details of the individual observations and light curves. We also conduct phenomenological modelling to investigate the basic source properties. We present the first VHE gamma-ray flare from M87 detected since 2010. The flux above 350 GeV has more than doubled within a period of about 36 hours. We find that the X-ray flux is enhanced by about a factor of two compared to 2017, while the radio and millimetre core fluxes are consistent between 2017 and 2018. We detect evidence for a monotonically increasing jet position angle that corresponds to variations in the bright spot of the EHT image. Our results show the value of continued MWL monitoring together with precision imaging for addressing the origins of high-energy particle acceleration. While we cannot currently pinpoint the precise location where such acceleration takes place, the new VHE gamma-ray flare already presents a challenge to simple one-zone leptonic emission model approaches, and emphasises the need for combined image and spectral modelling.