Multi-wavelength and Long-term Gamma-ray Monitoring of the Blazar 3C 454.3
Abstract
The AGILE gamma-ray satellite and several other space and ground based observatories monitored the activity of the flat-spectrum radio quasar 3C 454.3 during the period July 2007 - January 2009, yielding the longest multi-wavelength coverage of this gamma-ray quasar so far.
The source underwent an unprecedented period of very high activity above 100 MeV, reaching gamma-ray flux levels on a day time scale higher than F=500E-8 ph/cm2/s, simultaneously with an extremely variable behavior in the optical R-band, even of the order of several tenth of magnitude in few hours. We present the results of this long term multi-wavelength monitoring campaign, with particular emphasis on the study of possible lags among the different wavebands, the interplay between the radio and the gamma-ray energy bands, and the results of the modeling of simultaneous spectral energy distributions at different levels of activity.- Publication:
-
AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division #11
- Pub Date:
- March 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010HEAD...11.3310V