Submillimeter Variability and the Gamma-ray Connection in Fermi Blazars

Details Submillimeter Variability and the Gamma-ray Connection in Fermi Blazars Submillimeter Variability and the Gamma-ray Connection in Fermi Blazars

Jan 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21543408s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #434.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.376

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Observations with the Fermi Large Area Telescope have provided a wealth of new information on blazar behavior. To place the high-energy inverse-Compton component in context, we explore correlations between the gamma-ray properties of these objects and submillimeter observations of their parsec-scale jets using data from the Submillimeter Array (SMA). We report on the submillimeter properties of a sample of 171 blazars, 43 of which were detected by Fermi during the first three months of observations. Subclass is determined using the Candidate Gamma-Ray Blazar Survey (Healey et al. 2008, ApJS, 175, 97), resulting in 35 BL Lac objects and 136 flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) in our total sample. The submillimeter blazar light curves are modeled as continuous first-order autoregressive processes using a routine from Kelly et al. (2009, ApJS, 180, 330), from which we derive characteristic timescales. The amplitude of variability is parameterized using the variability index from Hovatta et al. (2008, A&A, 485, 51). We calculate energy spectral indices using contemporaneous observations in the 1 mm and 850 micron bands and taking the average over August-October 2008. Our blazar sample exhibits no differences in submillimeter variability amplitude or characteristic timescale based on subclass or luminosity. Submillimeter and gamma-ray energy spectral indices place constraints on the peak frequencies of the two spectral components but do not necessarily support the spectral sequence interpretation of blazar SEDs (Fossati et al. 1998, MNRAS, 299, 433). All of the light curves are consistent with being produced by a single process that accounts for both low and high states. There is some evidence that objects may be transitioning between BL Lac- and FSRQ-like states during flaring epochs.
This work is supported in part by the NSF REU and DOD ASSURE programs under NSF grant no. 0754568 and by the Smithsonian Institution.

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