A success story: 3C 454.3 in the gamma-ray energy band

TL;DR

This paper reviews four years of multi-wavelength observations of the blazar 3C 454.3, highlighting its extreme gamma-ray variability and recent intense flaring activity, providing insights into blazar jet properties.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive observational analysis of 3C 454.3's gamma-ray activity, emphasizing the significance of recent flaring episodes for understanding blazar jets.

Findings

3C 454.3 exhibited extreme gamma-ray fluxes during flares.

The 2010 November 20 flare reached flux levels six times higher than the Vela Pulsar.

Multi-wavelength campaigns reveal complex variability patterns.

Abstract

Since 2007, the blazar 3C 454.3 has become the most active and the brightest gamma-ray source of the sky, deserving the nickname of "Crazy Diamond". The short-term variability in the gamma-ray energy band and the extremely high peak fluxes reached during intense flaring episodes make 3C 454.3 one of the best targets to investigate the blazar jet properties. We review almost four years of observational properties of this remarkable source, discussing both short- and long-term multi-wavelength campaigns, with particular emphasis on the recent flaring episode which occurred on 2010 November 20, when 3C 454.3 reached on a daily time-scale a gamma-ray flux (E>100 MeV) higher than 6.5E-5 ph/cm2/s, about six times the flux of the brightest gamma-ray steady source, the Vela Pulsar.