Multiwavelength observations of 3C 454.3. III. Eighteen months of AGILE monitoring of the "Crazy Diamond"
Creators: name: Vercellone, S.
name: D'Ammando, F.
name: Vittorini, V.
name: Donnarumma, I.
name: Pucella, G.
name: Tavani, M.
name: Ferrari, A.
name: Raiteri, C. M.
name: Villata, M.
name: Romano, P.
name: Krimm, H.
name: Tiengo, A.
name: Chen, A. W.
name: Giovannini, G.
name: Venturi, T.
name: Giroletti, M.
name: Kovalev, Y. Y.
name: Sokolovsky, K.
name: Pushkarev, A. B.
name: Lister, M. L.
name: Argan, A.
name: Barbiellini, G.
name: Bulgarelli, A.
name: Caraveo, P.
name: Cattaneo, P. W.
name: Cocco, V.
name: Costa, E.
name: Del Monte, E.
name: De Paris, G.
name: Di Cocco, G.
name: Evangelista, Y.
name: Feroci, M.
name: Fiorini, M.
name: Fornari, F.
name: Froysland, T.
name: Fuschino, F.
name: Galli, M.
name: Gianotti, F.
name: Labanti, C.
name: Lapshov, I.
name: Lazzarotto, F.
name: Lipari, P.
name: Longo, F.
name: Giuliani, A.
name: Marisaldi, M.
name: Mereghetti, S.
name: Morselli, A.
name: Pellizzoni, A.
name: Pacciani, L.
name: Perotti, F.
name: Piano, G.
name: Picozza, P.
name: Pilia, M.
name: Prest, M.
name: Rapisarda, M.
name: Rappoldi, A.
name: Sabatini, S.
name: Soffitta, P.
name: Striani, E.
name: Trifoglio, M.
name: Trois, A.
name: Vallazza, E.
name: Zambra, A.
name: Zanello, D.
name: Pittori, C.
name: Verrecchia, F.
name: Santolamazza, P.
name: Giommi, P.
name: Colafrancesco, S.
name: Salotti, L.
name: Agudo, I.
name: Aller, H. D.
name: Aller, M. F.
name: Arkharov, A. A.
name: Bach, U.
name: Bachev, R.
name: Beltrame, P.
name: Benitez, E.
name: Boettcher, M.
name: Buemi, C. S.
name: Calcidese, P.
name: Capezzali, D.
name: Carosati, D.
name: Chen, W. P.
name: Da Rio, D.
name: Di Paola, A.
name: Dolci, M.
name: Dultzin, D.
name: Forne, E.
name: Gomez, J. L.
name: Gurwell, M. A.
name: Hagen-Thorn, V. A.
name: Halkola, A.
name: Heidt, J.
name: Hiriart, D.
name: Hovatta, T.
name: Hsiao, H. Y.
name: Jorstad, S. G.
name: Kimeridze, G.
name: Konstantinova, T. S.
name: Kopatskaya, E. N.
name: Koptelova, E.
name: Kurtanidze, O.
name: Lahteenmaki, A.
name: Larionov, V. M.
name: Leto, P.
name: Ligustri, R.
name: Lindfors, E.
name: Lopez, J. M.
name: Marscher, A. P.
name: Mujica, R.
name: Nikolashvili, M.
name: Nilsson, K.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We report on 18 months of multiwavelength observations of the blazar 3C 454.3 (Crazy Diamond) carried out in July 2007-January 2009. We show the results of the AGILE campaigns which took place on May-June 2008, July-August 2008, and October 2008-January 2009. During the May 2008-January 2009 period, the source average flux was highly variable, from an average gamma-ray flux F(E&gt;100MeV) &gt; 200E-8 ph/cm2/s in May-June 2008, to F(E&gt;100MeV)~80E-8 ph/cm2/s in October 2008-January 2009. The average gamma-ray spectrum between 100 MeV and 1 GeV can be fit by a simple power law (Gamma_GRID ~ 2.0 to 2.2). Only 3-sigma upper limits can be derived in the 20-60 keV energy band with Super-AGILE. During July-August 2007 and May-June 2008, RXTE measured a flux of F(3-20 keV)= 8.4E-11 erg/cm2/s, and F(3-20 keV)=4.5E-11 erg/cm2/s, respectively and a constant photon index Gamma_PCA=1.65. Swift/XRT observations were carried out during all AGILE campaigns, obtaining a F(2-10 keV)=(0.9-7.5)E-11 erg/cm2/s and a photon index Gamma_XRT=1.33-2.04. BAT measured an average flux of ~5 mCrab. GASP-WEBT monitored 3C 454.3 during the whole 2007-2008 period from the radio to the optical. A correlation analysis between the optical and the gamma-ray fluxes shows a time lag of tau=-0.4 days. An analysis of 15 GHz and 43 GHz VLBI core radio flux observations shows an increasing trend of the core radio flux, anti- correlated with the higher frequency data. The modeling SEDs, and the behavior of the long-term light curves in different energy bands, allow us to compare the jet properties during different emission states, and to study the geometrical properties of the jet on a time-span longer than one year.
description: Accepted for publication in ApJ. Adapted Abstract. 17 pages, 19 Figures, 5 Tables