Similarity of Optical-IR and Gamma-Ray Variability Properties of Fermi Blazars

Details Similarity of Optical-IR and Gamma-Ray Variability Properties of Fermi Blazars Similarity of Optical-IR and Gamma-Ray Variability Properties of Fermi Blazars

May 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21832702c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #218, #327.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011

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Scientific paper

We present the time variability properties of a sample of six blazars, AO 0235+164, 3C 273, 3C 279, PKS 1510-089, PKS 2155-304, and 3C 454.3, at optical-near IR frequencies observed as a part of the Yale/SMARTS program during 2008-2010. We find the optical/IR time variability properties of these blazars to be remarkably similar to those at the gamma-ray energies as observed through Fermi. The power spectral density (PSD) of the R-band variability of all six blazars are fit well by simple power-law functions with negative slope and no significant break. The negative slope implies there is higher amplitude variability on longer than on shorter timescales. Average slope and amplitude of these PSDs are similar to those of the gamma-ray variability of a larger sample of blazars as found by the Fermi team. This is consistent with the general picture of the leptonic model where the optical-IR and gamma-ray emission is generated by the same population of electrons through synchrotron and inverse-Compton processes, respectively. The prominent flares present in the optical-IR as well as the gamma-ray light curves of these blazars are predominantly symmetric, i.e., have similar rise and decay timescales. This indicates that the long-term variability is dominated by the crossing time of radiation or a disturbance through the emission region and not by the energy-loss timescales of the emitting electrons due to radiation. The total energy output, and the gamma-ray vs. optical flux relation of six individual flares of the blazar 3C 454.3 during 2009 August to December vary significantly from one event to the other. This indicates that the location and/or mechanism of their generation are different. This work was supported by Fermi GI grant NNX09AR92G and NSF grant AST-0707627.

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