Correlated variability in the blazar 3C 454.3

Abstract

The blazar 3C 454.3 was revealed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to be in an exceptionally high flux state in July 2008. Accordingly, we performed a multi-wavelength monitoring campaign on this blazar using IR and optical observations from the SMARTS telescopes, optical, UV and X-ray data from the Swift satellite, and public-release gamma-ray data from Fermi. We find an excellent correlation between the IR, optical, UV and gamma-ray light curves, with a time lag of less than one day. The amplitude of the infrared variability is comparable to that in gamma-rays, and larger than at optical or UV wavelengths. The X-ray flux is not strongly correlated with either the gamma-rays or longer wavelength data. These variability characteristics find a natural explanation in the external Compton model, in which electrons with Lorentz factor gamma~10^(3-4) radiate synchrotron emission in the infrared-optical and also scatter accretion disk or emission line photons to gamma-ray energies, while much cooler electrons (gamma~10^(1-2)) produce X-rays by scattering synchrotron or other ambient photons.

7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ Letters

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• INTEGRAL observations of the blazar 3C454.3 in outburst
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• Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Observations of Recent Gamma-ray Outbursts from 3C 454.3
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• Modeling the Broadband Emission of 3C 454.3
• The SMARTS Multi-epoch Optical Spectroscopy Atlas (SAMOSA): Using Emission Line Variability to Probe the Location of the Blazar Gamma-emitting Region
• CTA 102 in exceptionally high state during 2016-17
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• Optical and Gamma-Ray Variability Behaviors of 3C 454.3 from 2006 to 2011
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• Unusual Flaring Activity in the Blazar PKS 1424-418 during 2008-2011
• Extremely high polarization in 2010 outburst of blazar 3C 454.3
• Simultaneous Millimeter-wave, Gamma-ray, and Optical Monitoring of the Blazar PKS 2326-502 During a Flaring State
• INTEGRAL observations of the GeV blazar PKS1502+106 and of the hard X-ray bright Seyfert Galaxy Mkn841
• The Correlated Multi-color Optical Variations of BL Lac Object S5 0716+714
• Gamma-ray blazars: the view from AGILE
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