Gamma-ray Flares of Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars: A statistical view

TL;DR

This study analyzes a decade of gamma-ray flares from over 300 FSRQs, revealing burst-like activity patterns, a fast variability component, and correlations between flare luminosity and duration, providing insights into emission mechanisms.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive statistical analysis of gamma-ray flare variability in FSRQs, including burst modeling and constraints on emission processes, based on a large sample and new temporal insights.

Findings

Gamma-ray activity modeled as overlapping bursts with a rate of 0.6 per year.

Detection of a fast variability component on the order of days.

Correlation between flare peak luminosity and duration.

Abstract

Based on a 10 years sample of gamma-ray flares of FSRQs collected with FERMI and AGILE, I report on this proceeding the advance on a statistical study of variability for a sample of more than 300 FSRQs. I will focus on waiting time between flares (defined as the time intervals between consecutive activity peaks (Pacciani 2022). The investigation revealed that gamma-ray activity can be modeled with overlapping bursts of flares, with flares uniformly distributed within each burst, and a typical burst rate of 0.6 y$^{-1}$. Moreover, a statistically relevant fast component with timescale of order of days is revealed. From these results, constraints on flares emission mechanisms were derived. I also discuss the preliminary results on an investigation of flares luminosity and duration in gamma-rays. A Simple fitting model is shown, correlating peak luminosity and duration of gamma-ray flares (paper in preparation).