Detection of new very-high-energy sources outside the galactic plane in the Fermi-LAT data

TL;DR

This study identifies new very-high-energy gamma-ray sources outside the galactic plane using Fermi-LAT data, revealing unexpected transient phenomena and expanding the known types of VHE emitters, including non-blazar AGN.

Contribution

It introduces a novel spatio-temporal clustering method to detect VHE sources and flares, uncovering previously unknown sources and challenging existing AGN emission models.

Findings

Discovered two new VHE sources, weak BL Lac objects.

Identified six VHE flares without known high-energy counterparts.

Observed VHE flares from non-blazar AGN, including Seyfert and LINER galaxies.

Abstract

We present a search for spatio-temporal clusters in 16 years of Fermi-LAT very-high-energy (VHE; $E>100$~GeV) data using the DBSCAN algorithm, focusing on high Galactic latitude ($|b|>10^{\circ}$) clusters with $\geq5$ events and transient doublets (two events within $\leq 3$ days). Of 107 detected clusters, two correspond to previously unidentified VHE sources: weak BL Lacertae objects 4FGL J0039.1-2219 and 4FGL J0212.2-0219, promising targets for next-generation VHE observatories. Due to the low VHE photon background, even doublets with a duration of several days exhibited high statistical significance. While most of the 114 detected doublets originated from bright TeV emitters (e.g., Mrk 421, Mrk 501), we identified six VHE flares lacking TeVCat associations. Five of these flares correlate with sources from the Third Catalog of Fermi-LAT High-Energy Sources (3FHL), while one 'orphan' flare lacks a high-energy (HE; $E > 10$~GeV) source counterpart. Some of these flares reached extreme luminosities of $\mathcal{O}(10^{47}~\mathrm{erg~s^{-1}})$. No consistent temporal correlation emerged between HE and VHE activity: HE flares preceded, coincided with, or followed VHE emission across sources, with some showing no HE counterpart. Remarkably, 3FHL J0308.4+0408 (NGC 1218) is a Seyfert Type I galaxy, while no object of this class was known as a VHE emitter before. The 'orphan' flare without any known HE source in the vicinity may originate from NGC 5549, a low-luminosity LINER galaxy. Both sources expand the limited sample of non-blazar AGN detected at VHE energies. The fact that some weak sources with non-aligned jets and, sometimes, even without any traces of HE activity, could demonstrate very short and powerful VHE flares cannot be easily accounted in many current AGN models and calls for their further development.