Fast Variations of Gamma-Ray Emission in Blazars

Abstract

The largest group of sources identified by EGRET are Blazars. This sub-class of AGN is well known to vary in flux in all energy bands on time-scales ranging from a few minutes (in the optical and X-ray bands) up to decades (radio and optical regimes). In addition to variations of the gamma-ray flux between different viewing periods, the brightest of these sources showed a few remarkable gamma-ray flares on time-scales of about one day, confirming the extension of the ``Intraday-Variability (IDV)'' phenomenon into the GeV range. We present first results of a systematic approach to study fast variability with EGRET data. This statistical approach confirms the existence of IDV even during epochs when no strong flares are detected. This provides additional constraints on the site of the gamma-ray emission and allows cross-correlation analyses with light curves obtained at other frequencies even during periods of low flux. We also find that some stronger sources have fluxes systematically above threshold even during quiescent states. Despite the low count rates this allows explicit comparisons of flare amplitudes with other energy bands.