Gamma-ray blazars: the view from AGILE

TL;DR

This paper reviews AGILE satellite observations of gamma-ray blazars, highlighting their variability, spectral energy distributions, and complex emission mechanisms through multiwavelength data analysis.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of AGILE's multiwavelength observations of blazars, revealing complex behaviors beyond standard emission models.

Findings

Detection of multiple blazars in high gamma-ray activity

Correlation of gamma-ray variability with other wavelengths

Evidence of complex emission mechanisms

Abstract

During the first 3 years of operation the Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector onboard the AGILE satellite detected several blazars in a high gamma-ray activity: 3C 279, 3C 454.3, PKS 1510-089, S5 0716+714, 3C 273, W Comae, Mrk 421, PKS 0537-441 and 4C +21.35. Thanks to the rapid dissemination of our alerts, we were able to obtain multiwavelength data from other observatories such as Spitzer, Swift, RXTE, Suzaku, INTEGRAL, MAGIC, VERITAS, and ARGO as well as radio-to-optical coverage by means of the GASP Project of the WEBT and the REM Telescope. This large multifrequency coverage gave us the opportunity to study the variability correlations between the emission at different frequencies and to obtain simultaneous spectral energy distributions of these sources from radio to gamma-ray energy bands, investigating the different mechanisms responsible for their emission and uncovering in some cases a more complex behaviour with respect to the standard models. We present a review of the most interesting AGILE results on these gamma-ray blazars and their multifrequency data.