Early warning for VHE gamma-ray flares with the ARGO-YBJ detector

Bartoli, B.; Bernardini, Paolo; X. J., Bi; Bleve, C.; Bolognino, I.; Branchini, P.; Budano, A.; Calabrese Melcarne, A. K.; Camarri, P.; Cao, Z.; Cappa, A.; Cardarelli, R.; Catalanotti, S.; Cattaneo, C.; Celio, P.; Chen, S. Z.; Chen, T. L.; Chen, Y.; Creti, P.; Cui, S. W.; Dai, B. Z.; D’Alı´staiti, G.; Danzengluobu,; Dattoli, M.; DE MITRI, Ivan; D’Ettorre Piazzoli, B.; Di Girolamo, T.; Ding, X. H.; Di Sciascio, G.; Feng, C. F.; Feng, Zhaoyang; Feng, Zhenyong; Galeazzi, F.; Galeotti, P.; Giroletti, E.; Gou, Q. B.; Guo, Y. Q.; H. H., He; Huo, Haibing; Hue, Hongbo; Huang, Q.; Iacovacci, M.; Iuppa, R.; James, I.; Jia, H. Y.; Labaciren,; H. J., Li; J. Y., Li; X. X., Li; Liguori, G.; Liu, C.; Liu, C. Q.; Liu, J.; Liu, M. Y.; Lu, H.; X. H., Ma; Mancarella, Giovanni; Mari, S. M.; Marsella, Giovanni; Martello, Daniele; Mastroianni, S.; Montini, P.; Ning, C. C.; Pagliaro, A.; Panareo, Marco; Panico, B.; Perrone, Lorenzo; Pistilli, P.; X. B., Qu; Rossi, E.; Ruggieri, F.; Salvini, P.; Santonico, R.; Shen, P. R.; Sheng, X. D.; Shi, F.; Stanescu, C.; Surdo, A.; Tan, Y. H.; Vallania, P.; Vernetto, S.; Vigorito, C.; Wang, B.; Wang, H.; C. Y., Wu; H. R., Wu; Xu, B.; Xue, L.; Yan, Y. X.; Yang, Q. Y.; Yang, X. C.; Yao, Z. G.; Yuan, A. F.; Zha, M.; Zhang, H. M.; Jilongzhang, Jianlizhang; Zhang, L.; Zhang, P.; Zhang, X. Y.; Zhang, Y.; Zhaxiciren, Zhaxisangzhu; Zhou, X. X.; Zhu, F. R.; Zhu, Q. Q.; Zizzi, G.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2011.09.013

Detecting and monitoring emissions from flaring gamma-ray sources in the very-high-energy (VHE, > 100 GeV) band is a very important topic in gamma-ray astronomy. The ARGO-YBJ detector is characterized by a high duty cycle and a wide field of view. Therefore, it is particularly capable of detecting flares from extragalactic objects. Based on fast reconstruction and analysis, real-time monitoring of 33 selected VHE extragalactic sources is implemented. Flares exceeding a specific threshold are reported timely, hence enabling the follow-up observation of these objects using more sensitive detectors, such as Cherenkov telescopes.