Analysis of a Bright Orphan Gamma-Ray Flare from 3C 279

Multiwavelength observations of the blazar 3C 279 show a very bright, 12-hour, orphan gamma-ray flare on 20 Dec 2013 with a uniquely hard FermiLAT spectrum and high Compton dominance. We work with a one-zone, leptonic model with both first- and second-order Fermi acceleration, which now reproduces the unique flaring behavior. We present a simplified analytic particle distribution to provide intuition about how acceleration shapes blazar spectra since understanding contributions of individual n processes in blazar jets is fundamental to our understanding of the particle energy budget in the disk-jet connection.n We rule out the possibility that significant acceleration occurs via magnetic reconnection due to the very low magnetization parameter, and is constrained by the maximum Larmor radius for the jet geometry. We propose that larger changes in the surrounding material precipitated this unusual flare exacerbated the emission from moderate increases in acceleration, especially an increased energy density in the broad line region and dust torus, as well as an increase in jet material, which lowered the synchrotron radiation as Compton emission soared.