Flaring gamma-ray AGNs seen with the FERMI LAT

TL;DR

This paper analyzes gamma-ray flaring active galactic nuclei detected by Fermi LAT, focusing on their variability and properties compared to the general source population.

Contribution

It provides a detailed study of bright, flaring gamma-ray AGNs observed over 3.5 years, highlighting their variability and distinguishing features.

Findings

Identification of bright flaring sources with flux > 10^{-6} ph/cm^2/s

Most flaring sources are blazars with high variability

Comparison of flaring sources with general Fermi catalog characteristics

Abstract

In the first 3.5 years of operations the Fermi LAT detected several sources with daily fluxes brighter than F(E>100MeV) > 10^{-6} ph/cm^2/s, the threshold set by the Fermi Collaboration for issuing an Astronomer Telegram. We focus the attention on these flaring sources, most of which are blazars, known to be extremely variable over the whole electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to gamma-ray energies and we investigate the properties of the selected sample comparing them to the general characteristics of the Fermi catalog sources.