J/ApJ/712/405 Multiwavelength observations of 3C 454.3 III. (Vercellone+, 2010)
Multiwavelength observations of 3C 454.3.
III. Eighteen months of AGILE monitoring of the "Crazy Diamond".
Vercellone S., D'Ammando F., Vittorini V., Donnarumma I., Pucella G.,
Tavani M., Ferrari A., Raiteri C.M., Villata M., Romano P., Krimm H.,
Tiengo A., Chen A.W., Giovannini G., Venturi T., Giroletti M.,
Kovalev Y.Y., Sokolovsky K., Pushkarev A.B., Lister M.L., Argan A.,
Barbiellini G., Bulgarelli A., Caraveo P., Cattaneo P.W., Cocco V.,
Costa E., Del Monte E., De Paris G., Di Cocco G., Evangelista Y.,
Feroci M., Fiorini M., Fornari F., Froysland T., Fuschino F., Galli M.,
Gianotti F., Labanti C., Lapshov I., Lazzarotto F., Lipari P., Longo F.,
Giuliani A., Marisaldi M., Mereghetti S., Morselli A., Pellizzoni A.,
Pacciani L., Perotti F., Piano G., Picozza P., Pilia M., Prest M.,
Rapisarda M., Rappoldi A., Sabatini S., Soffitta P., Striani E.,
Trifoglio M., Trois A., Vallazza E., Zambra A., Zanello D., Pittori C.,
Verrecchia F., Santolamazza P., Giommi P., Colafrancesco S., Salotti L.,
Agudo I., Aller H.D., Aller M.F., Arkharov A.A., Bach U., Bachev R.,
Beltrame P., Benitez E., Bottcher M., Buemi C.S., Calcidese P.,
Capezzali D., Carosati D., Chen W.P., Da Rio D., Di Paola A., Dolci M.,
Dultzin D., Forne E., Gomez J.L., Gurwell M.A., Hagen-Thorn V.A.,
Halkola A., Heidt J., Hiriart D., Hovatta T., Hsiao H.-Y., Jorstad S.G.,
Kimeridze G., Konstantinova T.S., Kopatskaya E.N., Koptelova E.,
Kurtanidze O., Lahteenmaki A., Larionov V.M., Leto P., Ligustri R.,
Lindfors E., Lopez J.M., Marscher A.P., Mujica R., Nikolashvili M.,
Nilsson K., Mommert M., Palma N., Pasanen M., Roca-Sogorb M., Ros J.A.,
Roustazadeh P., Sadun A.C., Saino J., Sigua L., Sorcia M., Takalo L.O.,
Tornikoski M., Trigilio C., Turchetti R., Umana G.
<Astrophys. J., 712, 405-420 (2010)>
=2010ApJ...712..405V 2010ApJ...712..405V
ADC_Keywords: QSOs ; X-ray sources ; Observatory log
Keywords: galaxies: active - galaxies: jets - quasars: general -
quasars: individual (3C 454.3) - radiation mechanisms: non-thermal
Abstract:
We report on 18 months of multiwavelength observations of the blazar
3C 454.3 (Crazy Diamond) carried out in the period 2007 July-2009
January. During the 2008 May-2009 January period, the source average
flux was highly variable, with a clear fading trend toward the end of
the period, from an average γ-ray flux
FE>100MeV≳200x10-8photons/cm2/s in 2008 May-June, to
FE>100MeV∼80x10-8photons/cm-2/s in 2008 October-2009 January. In
2007 July-August and 2008 May-June, 3C 454.3 was monitored by Rossi
X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). We also carried out simultaneous Swift
observations during all AGILE campaigns. Swift/XRT detected 3C 454.3
with an observed flux in the 2-10keV energy band in the range
(0.9-7.5)x10-11erg/cm2/s and a photon index in the range
ΓXRT=1.33-2.04. In the 15-150keV energy band, when detected,
the source has an average flux of about 5mCrab. GASP-WEBT monitored 3C
454.3 during the whole 2007-2008 period in the radio, millimeter,
near-IR, and optical bands. The observations show an extremely
variable behavior at all frequencies, with flux peaks almost
simultaneous with those at higher energies. An analysis of 15GHz and
43GHz VLBI core radio flux observations in the period 2007 July-2009
February shows an increasing trend of the core radio flux,
anti-correlated with the higher frequency data, allowing us to derive
the value of the source magnetic field.
Description:
Swift pointed observations were performed from 2007 July 26 to 2009
January 1. These observations were obtained both by means of several
dedicated ToOs (P.I.: S. Vercellone) and by activating Swift Cycle-3
(Obs. ID 00031018, P.I.: A.W. Chen) and Cycle-4 Proposals (Obs. ID
00031216, P.I.: S. Vercellone). A long-lasting monitoring program
(P.I.s: L. Fuhrmann and S. Vercellone) covers the period 2008
July-October.
Table 3 summarizes the Swift/XRT observations. We extracted the source
events from an annular region with an inner radius of 3 pixels
(estimated by means of the point-spread function (PSF) fitting
technique) and an outer radius of 30 pixels (1 pixel ∼2.36").
Objects:
----------------------------------------------------
RA (2000) DE Designation(s)
----------------------------------------------------
22 53 57.75 +16 08 53.6 3C 454.3 = QSO B2251+158
----------------------------------------------------
File Summary:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe 80 . This file
table3.dat 59 92 Swift/XRT observation log
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See also:
J/A+A/528/A122 : SwiftFT catalog (Puccetti+, 2011)
J/MNRAS/403/945 : Swift/XRT obs. of unidentified IBIS sources (Landi+, 2010)
J/MNRAS/397/1177 : Swift-XRT observations of GRBs (Evans+, 2009)
J/A+A/448/L9 : Position catalogue of Swift XRT afterglows (Moretti+, 2006)
http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/data/access/ : FERMI data products
http://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/swift/swiftsc.html : SWIFT home page
http://www.physics.purdue.edu/MOJAVE/ : Monitoring of Jets in AGN with VLBA
Experiments home page
http://agile.asdc.asi.it/ : AGILE data center home page
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table3.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 11 I11 --- Seq Sequence identification number
13- 14 A2 --- Mode [PC/WT] Observation mode (PC: photon
counting or WT: windowed timing)
16- 25 A10 "YYYY/MM/DD" Start.date UT date of the observation start
27- 34 A8 "h:m:s" Start.time UT time of the observation start
36- 45 A10 "YYYY/MM/DD" End.date UT date of the observation end
47- 54 A8 "h:m:s" End.time UT time of the observation end
56- 59 I4 s Exp Exposure time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History:
From electronic version of the journal
References:
Vercellone et al. Paper I. 2009ApJ...690.1018V 2009ApJ...690.1018V
Donnarumma et al. Paper II. 2009ApJ...707.1115D 2009ApJ...707.1115D
(End) Greg Schwarz [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 05-Apr-2012