Related papers: Rapid variability in TeV blazars: the case of PKS …

The fast TeV variability of the blazars Mrk 501 and PKS 2155--304 implies a compact emitting region that moves with a bulk Lorentz factor of Gamma_{em}~100 toward the observer. The Lorentz factor is clearly in excess of the jet Lorentz…

Rapid variability on a time scale much faster than the light-crossing time of the central supermassive black hole has been seen in TeV emission from the blazar PKS 2155-304. The most plausible explanation of this puzzling observation is…

Recent Cerenkov observations of the two BL Lac objects PKS 2155-304 and Mkn 501 revealed TeV flux variability by a factor ~2 in just 3-5 minutes. Even accounting for the effects of relativistic beaming, such short timescales are challenging…

We discuss the implications of rapid (few-minute) variability in the TeV flux of blazars, which has been observed recently with the HESS and MAGIC telescopes. The variability timescales seen in PKS 2155-304 and Mrk 501 are much shorter than…

Blazars, a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGN), are known to be bright $\gamma$-ray sources, frequently exhibiting active (flaring) periods. The blazar PKS~2155-304 is a high synchrotron-peaked BL Lac object located at redshift…

We reviewed X-ray flux and spectral variability properties studied to date by various X-ray satellites for Mrk 421 and PKS 2155-304, which are TeV emitting blazars. Mrk 421 and PKS 2155-304 are the most X-ray luminous blazars in the…

The extremely rapid burst of TeV photons from Mkn 421 (15 May 1996) can be reconciled with the standard properties of a relativistic gamma-ray emitting jet (bulk Lorentz factor $\approx$ 10; size $\10^{17}$ cm) if one assumes that the…

We propose a new model for the description of ultra-short flares from TeV blazars by compact magnetized condensations (blobs), produced when red giant stars cross the jet close to the central black hole. Our study includes a simple…

We present theoretical modelling for the very rapid TeV variability of PKS 2155--304 observed recently by the H.E.S.S. experiment. To explain the light-curve, where at least five flaring events were well observed, we assume five independent…

A major flaring state of the BL Lac object Mrk 501 was observed by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) in June, 2014. Flux levels higher than one Crab unit were recorded and rapid variability at very high energies ($\sim$2-20…

The jet of the radio galaxy M87 is misaligned, resulting in a Doppler factor delta~1 for emission of plasma moving parallel to the jet. This makes the observed fast TeV flares on timescales of t_v~5R_g/c harder to understand as emission…

The peak of the de-absorbed energy distribution of the TeV emitting BLs can reach values up to ~10 TeV. In the context of SSC models of relativistic uniformly moving blobs of plasma, such high energy peak emission can be reproduced only by…

The kinetic energy of bulk relativistic plasma ejected from the central engine of blazars is converted into nonthermal particle energy in the comoving frame through a process of sweeping up material from the surrounding medium. The…

Time variability of the photon flux is a known feature of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and in particular of blazars. The high frequency peaked BL Lac (HBL) object PKS 2155-304 is one of the brightest sources in the TeV band and has been…

Among active galactic nuclei, blazars show extreme variability properties. We here investigate the case of the BL Lac object S4 0954+65 with data acquired in 2019-2020 by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and by the Whole…

H.E.S.S. observed TeV blazar PKS 2155--304 in a strong flare state in 2006 July. The TeV flux varied on timescale as short as a few minutes, which sets strong constraints on the properties of the emission region. By use of the synchrotron…

The TeV blazar PKS 2155--304 was the subject of an intensive 2 week optical and near-infrared observing campaign in 2004 August with the CTIO 0.9m telescope. During this time, simultaneous X-ray data from RXTE were also obtained. We compare…

Combined with very-long-baseline interferometry measurements, the observations of fast TeV gamma-ray flares probe the structure and emission mechanism of blazar jets. However, only a handful of such flares have been detected to date, and…

The rapid variability of the VHE emission reported for some TeV blazars implies Doppler factors well in excess of those inferred from superluminal motions and unification schemes. We propose that those extreme flares may result from…

The TeV blazar PKS 2155-304 was monitored with the X-ray satellite ASCA in 1994 May, as part of a multiwavelength campaign from the radio to X-ray bands. At the beginning of the two-day continuous observation, we detected a large flare,…