Larionov, Valeri

Prominent outburst of the blazar CTA102 in 2012.

Author list: V. Larionov, S. Jorstad, A. Marscher, D. Blinov, M. Villata, C. Raiteri, I. Agudo, P. Smith, D. Morozova, I. Troitsky

After few years of quiescence, the blazar CTA 102 underwent a large outburst in the fall of 2012. The flare has been traced from gamma-rays to near-infrared, including Fermi and Swift data and polarimetric data from several observatories. An intensive GASP-WEBT collaboration campaign in optical and NIR bands, using previously unpublished archival data, allowed to compare this outburst with the previous activity period of this blazar in early 2000th. We found remarkable similarity between optical and gamma-ray behavior of CTA 102 during the outburst, without any time lag between the two light curves, indicating co-spatiality of the optical- and gamma-radiating regions. A strong harder-when-brighter spectral dependence is seen both in gamma and optical. Polarimetric behavior of CTA 102 during the outburst conforms with the shock-in-jet interpretation.