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Title: Detection of significant cm to sub-mm band radio and  γ-ray correlated variability in Fermi bright blazars

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu540· OSTI ID:1356525
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [4];  [1];  [5];  [5];  [5]
  1. Max Planck Inst. for Radio Astronomy, Bonn (Germany)
  2. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden). Oskar Klein Centre
  3. Stanford Univ. and SLAC National Accelerator Lab., CA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
  4. Inst. of Millimetric Radio Astronomy, Granada (Spain)
  5. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)

The exact location of the γ-ray emitting region in blazars is still controversial. In order to attack this problem we present first results of a cross-correlation analysis between radio (11 cm to 0.8 mm wavelength, F-GAMMA programme) and γ-ray (0.1–300 GeV) ~3.5 yr light curves of 54 Fermi-bright blazars. We perform a source stacking analysis and estimate significances and chance correlations using mixed source correlations. These results reveal: (i) the first highly significant multiband radio and γ-ray correlations (radio lagging γ rays) when averaging over the whole sample, (ii) average time delays (source frame: 76 ± 23 to 7 ± 9 d), systematically decreasing from cm to mm/sub-mm bands with a frequency dependence τr, γ(ν) ∝ ν-1, in good agreement with jet opacity dominated by synchrotron self-absorption, (iii) a bulk γ-ray production region typically located within/upstream of the 3 mm core region (τ3mm, γ = 12 ± 8 d), (iv) mean distances between the region of γ-ray peak emission and the radio ‘τ = 1 photosphere’ decreasing from 9.8 ± 3.0 pc (11 cm) to 0.9 ± 1.1 pc (2 mm) and 1.4 ± 0.8 pc (0.8 mm), (v) 3 mm/γ-ray correlations in nine individual sources at a significance level where one is expected by chance (probability: 4 × 10-6), (vi) opacity and ‘time lag core shift’ estimates for quasar 3C 454.3 providing a lower limit for the distance of the bulk γ-ray production region from the supermassive black hole (SMBH) of ~0.8–1.6 pc, i.e. at the outer edge of the broad-line region (BLR) or beyond. A 3 mm τ = 1 surface at ~2–3 pc from the jet base (i.e. well outside the ‘canonical BLR’) finally suggests that BLR material extends to several parsec distances from the SMBH.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Contributing Organization:
Fermi LAT Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1356525
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 441, Issue 3; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 104 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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The connection between gamma-ray emission and millimeter flares in Fermi/LAT blazars text January 2011
Catching the radio flare in CTA 102 I. Light curve analysis text January 2011
Relativistic Outflow Drives Gamma-Ray Emission in 3C345 text January 2011
Radio and gamma-ray follow-up of the exceptionally high activity state of PKS 1510-089 in 2011 text January 2012
A Tight Connection between Gamma-Ray Outbursts and Parsec-Scale Jet Activity in the Quasar 3C 454.3 text January 2013
Structure and flux variability in the VLBI jet of BL Lacertae during the WEBT campaigns (1995--2004) text January 2006
On Uncertainties in Cross-Correlation Lags and the Reality of Wavelength-Dependent Continuum Lags in Active Galactic Nuclei text January 1998

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Radio jet emission from GeV-emitting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies journal February 2015
A sample of weak blazars at milli-arcsecond resolution journal April 2015
Location of γ -ray emission and magnetic field strengths in OJ 287 journal January 2017
PKS 1502+106: A high-redshift Fermi blazar at extreme angular resolution : Structural dynamics with VLBI imaging up to 86 GHz⋆ journal January 2016
The F-GAMMA programme: multi-frequency study of active galactic nuclei in the Fermi era : Programme description and the first 2.5 years of monitoring⋆ journal November 2016
TANAMI: Tracking Active Galactic Nuclei with Austral Milliarcsecond Interferometry: II. Additional sources journal February 2018
Multi-wavelength characterization of the blazar S5 0716+714 during an unprecedented outburst phase journal November 2018
F-GAMMA: Multi-frequency radio monitoring of Fermi blazars : The 2.64 to 43 GHz Effelsberg light curves from 2007–2015⋆ journal June 2019
Resolving the High-Energy Universe with Strong Gravitational Lensing: the case of pks 1830–211 journal August 2015
Stochastic Modeling of the Time Variability of ALMA Calibrators journal August 2019
WHY HAVE MANY OF THE BRIGHTEST RADIO-LOUD BLAZARS NOT BEEN DETECTED IN GAMMA-RAYS BY FERMI ? journal August 2015
A flat-spectrum flare in S4 0444+63 revealed by a new implementation of multiwavelength single-dish observations journal January 2020
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The observed radio/gamma-ray emission correlation for blazars with the Fermi-LAT and the RATAN-600 data journal May 2015
Radio follow-up of the γ-ray flaring gravitational lens JVAS B0218+357 journal February 2016
Radio and optical intra-day variability observations of five blazars journal May 2017
KVN observations reveal multiple γ-ray emission regions in 3C 84? journal January 2018
A connection between γ-ray and parsec-scale radio flares in the blazar 3C 273 journal March 2017
Exploring the nature of the 2016 γ-ray emission in the blazar 1749+096 journal July 2018
Multiwavelength cross-correlations and flaring activity in bright blazars journal August 2018
A revised lens time delay for JVAS B0218+357 from a reanalysis of VLA monitoring data journal March 2018
Physical inference from the γ-ray, X-ray, and optical time variability of a large sample of Fermi blazars journal September 2019
Investigating the multiwavelength behaviour of the flat spectrum radio quasar CTA 102 during 2013–2017 journal October 2019
Correlation between γ-ray and radio emissions in Fermi blazars journal December 2014
Gamma-ray Emitting Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies: Past, Present, and Future text January 2019
Microvariability in BL Lacertae: “Zooming” into the Innermost Blazar Regions journal January 2018
3C 84: Observational Evidence for Precession and a Possible Relation to TeV Emission journal August 2019
Erratic Flaring of bl lac in 2012–2013: Multiwavelength Observations journal January 2016
DISCOVERY OF γ -RAY EMISSION FROM THE RADIO-INTERMEDIATE QUASAR III ZW 2: VIOLENT JET ACTIVITY WITH INTRADAY γ -RAY VARIABILITY journal October 2016
Kinematics of Parsec-scale Jets of Gamma-Ray Blazars at 43 GHz within the VLBA-BU-BLAZAR Program journal September 2017
Exploring the Variability of the Flat Spectrum Radio Source 1633+382. I. Phenomenology of the Light Curves journal January 2018
Multi-frequency Variability Study of Ton 599 during the High Activity of 2017 journal January 2019
Characterizing the Gamma-Ray Variability of the Brightest Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars Observed with the Fermi LAT journal May 2019
Curvature-induced Polarization and Spectral Index Behavior for PKS 1502+106 journal October 2019
Gamma-ray emitting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies: Past, present, and future journal October 2019
Multi-wavelength characterization of the blazar S5 0716+714 during an unprecedented outburst phase text January 2018
Radio and optical intra-day variability observations of five blazars text January 2017
A sample of weak blazars at milli-arcsecond resolution text January 2015
Resolving the High Energy Universe with Strong Gravitational Lensing: The Case of PKS 1830-211 text January 2015
PKS 1502+106: A high-redshift Fermi blazar at extreme angular resolution. Structural dynamics with VLBI imaging up to 86 GHz text January 2015
Radio follow-up of the gamma-ray flaring gravitational lens JVAS B0218+357 text January 2016
Location of Gamma-ray emission and magnetic field strengths in OJ 287 text January 2016
The F-GAMMA program: Multi-frequency study of Active Galactic Nuclei in the Fermi era. Program description and the first 2.5 years of monitoring text January 2016
A revised lens time delay for JVAS B0218+357 from a reanalysis of VLA monitoring data text January 2018
Multiwavelength Cross-Correlations and Flaring Activity in Bright Blazars text January 2018
Multi-frequency variability study of Ton 599 during high activity of 2017 text January 2018
F-GAMMA: Multi-frequency radio monitoring of Fermi blazars. The 2.64 to 43 GHz Effelsberg light curves from 2007-2015 text January 2019
Stochastic modeling of the time variability of ALMA calibrators text January 2019
Physical Inference from the gamma-ray, X-Ray and Optical Time Variability of a Large Sample of Fermi Blazars text January 2019
Investigating the multiwavelength behaviour of the flat spectrum radio quasar CTA 102 during 2013-2017 text January 2019
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