Related papers: Rapid VHE variability in blazars
The availability of simultaneous X-ray and Very High Energy (VHE) observations of blazars helps to identify the plausible radiative contributors to the VHE emission. Under leptonic scenario, the VHE emission from BL Lacs are attributed to…
The rapid variability observed in very-high-energy (VHE) sources-such as pulsars, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and flares from active galactic nuclei (AGN)-can be used to detect or constrain a potential violation of Lorentz invariance (LIV).…
Blazars are characterized by rapid variability at virtually all wavelengths from radio through TeV gamma-rays. The challenge since their discovery has been to understand the origin of their luminous, apparently nonthermal, nuclear emission.…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are believed to be powered by accretion of matter onto a supermassive black hole. A fundamental ingredient in shaping our understanding of AGN is their variability across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.…
While observations in the radio band are providing essential information on the innermost structures of relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN), the recent detection by Fermi of gamma-ray emission from many hundreds of blazars…
Blazars are among the most energetic and violent objects in the universe. By observing blazars at very high energies (VHE, E > 100 GeV) we can better understand blazar emission mechanisms, jet structure, black hole accretion and the…
We present the general properties of the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and discuss the origin and structure of jets that are associated to a fraction of these objects. We then we address the problems of particle acceleration at highly…
Very-high energy (VHE; $>$100 GeV) $\gamma$-ray emission originates via some of the most extreme particle acceleration processes in the universe. Considering beamed active galactic nuclei, i.e., blazars, only a small fraction, mainly high…
Comprehensive VLBI and multi-waveband monitoring indicate that a single superluminal knot can cause a number of gamma-ray flares at different locations. However, the often very rapid variability timescale is a challenge to theoretical…
Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) make up about 35 per cent of the more than 250 sources detected in very-high-energy (VHE) gamma rays to date with Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. Apart from four nearby radio galaxies and two AGNs of…
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…
With their jet pointing towards us, blazars are ideal tools to study the physics and structure of extragalactic jets. Their powerful jets are cosmic particle accelerators and are alleged to be one of the production sites of the high-energy…
Recent observations in the TeV band challenge the simplest models developed to describe the overall emission of blazars and radiogalaxies. In particular, the observation of variable TeV emission from M87 and the fast variability shown by…
The highest-energy blazars exhibit non-thermal radiation extending beyond 1 TeV with high luminosities and strong variabilities, indicating extreme particle acceleration in their relativistic jets. The gamma-ray spectra of blazars contain…
Recent Cherenkov observations of BL Lac objects showed that the TeV flux of PKS 2155-304 changed by a factor 2 in just 3-5 minutes. This fast variability can be accounted for if the emitting region is moving with a bulk Lorentz factor…
An accreting supermassive blackhole, the central engine of active galactic nucleus (AGN), is capable of exciting extreme amplitude Alfven waves whose wavelength (wave packet) size is characterized by its clumpiness. The pondermotive force…
1ES 1218+304 is among a group of several TeV blazars that exhibit surprisingly hard energy spectra given their redshifts. The VERITAS collaboration has carried out an intensive observing campaign of 1ES 1218+304 in early 2009 to…
We investigate the temporal variability of polarization of synchrotron radiation from blazar jets. Multiwavelength observations revealed high-amplitude rotations of the electric vector position angle (EVPA), both in the optical and in the…
A few Galactic objects are known to be variable sources of photons with energies above 100 GeV. These systems are mostly binaries, where variability can often be connected to the orbital period. Particle acceleration and gamma-ray…
Blazars are characterized by large amplitude and fast variability, indicating that the electron distribution is rapidly changing, often on time scales shorter than the light crossing time. We study the time dependent behavior of the…