Optical variability of jetted AGN

We used the jetted AGNs detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope to study the origins of optical variability of jetted AGNs. Our main findings are that (1) jetted AGNs with efficient accretion exhibit significantly greater optical variability amplitudes than jetted AGNs with inefficient accretion.

This result indicates that standard thin accretion disks produce stronger optical variability than advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs). (2) There is a significant positive correlation between optical variability amplitudes and radio luminosity, gamma-ray luminosity, X-ray luminosity, the synchrotron peak frequency luminosity, the inverse Compton peak frequency luminosity, and Compton dominance for jetted AGNs with inefficient accretion.