The F-GAMMA program: Multi-frequency study of Active Galactic Nuclei in
  the Fermi era. Program description and the first 2.5 years of monitoring
  To fully exploit the scientific potential of the Fermi mission, we initiated
the F-GAMMA program. Between 2007 and 2015 it was the prime provider of
complementary multi-frequency monitoring in the radio regime. We quantify the
radio variability of gamma-ray blazars. We investigate its dependence on source
class and examine whether the radio variability is related to the gamma-ray
loudness. Finally, we assess the validity of a putative correlation between the
two bands. The F-GAMMA monitored monthly a sample of about 60 sources at up to
twelve radio frequencies between 2.64 and 228.39 GHz. We perform a time series
analysis on the first 2.5-year dataset to obtain variability parameters. A
maximum likelihood analysis is used to assess the significance of a correlation
between radio and gamma-ray fluxes. We present light curves and spectra
(coherent within ten days) obtained with the Effelsberg 100-m and IRAM 30-m
telescopes. All sources are variable across all frequency bands with amplitudes
increasing with frequency up to rest frame frequencies of around 60 - 80 GHz as
expected by shock-in-jet models. Compared to FSRQs, BL Lacs show systematically
lower variability amplitudes, brightness temperatures and Doppler factors at
lower frequencies, while the difference vanishes towards higher ones. The time
scales appear similar for the two classes. The distribution of spectral indices
appears flatter or more inverted at higher frequencies for BL Lacs. Evolving
synchrotron self-absorbed components can naturally account for the observed
spectral variability. We find that the Fermi-detected sources show larger
variability amplitudes as well as brightness temperatures and Doppler factors,
than non-detected ones. Flux densities at 86.2 and 142.3 GHz correlate with 1
GeV fluxes at a significance level better than 3sigma, implying that gamma rays
are produced very close to the mm-band emission region.
