Related papers: Turbulent Extreme Multi-Zone Model for Multi-Waveb…
Multiwavelength polarimetric observations of blazars reveal complex, energy-dependent polarization behavior, including a decrease in polarization fraction from X-rays to millimeter bands and significant variability in the electric vector…
We present a time-dependent multi-zone code for simulating the variability of Synchrotron-Self Compton (SSC) sources. The code adopts a multi-zone pipe geometry for the emission region, appropriate for simulating emission from a standing or…
For a sample of 51 blazars with extensive optical polarization data, we used circular statistics to calculate the scatter among the polarization position angles for each object. We found that this scatter is correlated with the radio core…
The polarization of X-ray synchrotron emission in blazars directly probes the magnetic field geometry and particle acceleration processes in relativistic jets. We use particle-in-cell simulations of magnetic reconnection and magnetized…
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…
The jets of blazars are renowned for their multi-wavelength flares and rapid extreme variability; however, there are still some important unanswered questions about the physical processes responsible for these spectral and temporal changes…
Blazars are known to emit a broad band emission from radio to gamma-rays with rapid time variations, particularly, in X- and gamma-rays. Synchrotron radiation and inverse Compton scattering are thought to play an important role in emission…
Blazars are the most violent steady/recurrent sources of high-energy gamma-ray emission in the known Universe. They are prominent emitters of electromagnetic radiation throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum. The observable radiation…
The analysis of the radio light curves of the blazar CTA102 during its 2006 flare revealed a possible interaction between a standing shock wave and a traveling one. In order to better understand this highly non-linear process, we used a…
We model the acceleration of electrons at a shock front in a relativistic blazar jet and compute the radiation they emit in a post-shock region which contains a homogeneous magnetic field. The full space, time and momentum dependence of the…
We present a description of our numerical code BLAZAR. This code calculates spectra and light curves of blazars during outbursts. The code is based on a model in which the non-thermal flares in blazars are produced in thin shells…
The gamma-ray emission of blazar jets shows a pronounced variability and this feature provides limits to the size and to the speed of the emitting region. We study the gamma-ray variability of bright blazars using data from the first 18…
Variability can be the pathway to understanding the physical processes in astrophysical jets, however, the high-cadence observations required to test particle acceleration models are still missing. Here we report on the first attempt to…
Blazars are highly variable active galactic nuclei which emit radiation at all wavelengths from radio to gamma-rays. Polarized radiation from blazars is one key piece of evidence for synchrotron radiation at low energies and it also varies…
Active galactic nuclei come in many varieties. A minority of them are radio-loud, and exhibit two opposite prominent plasma jets extending from the proximity of the supermassive black hole up to megaparsec distances. When one of the…
The high energy emission of microquasars is thought to originate from high energy particles. Depending on the spectral state, the distribution of these particles can be thermal with a high temperature (typically 100 keV) or non-thermal and…
Since the mid-1980s the shock-in-jet model has been the preferred paradigm to explain radio-band flaring in blazar jets. We describe our radiative transfer model incorporating relativistically-propagating shocks, and illustrate how the 4.8,…
The polarization signatures of the blazar emissions are known to be highly variable. In addition to small fluctuations of the polarization angle around a mean value, sometimes large (> 180^o) polarization angle swings are observed. We…
Our recent progress on time-dependent modeling of the multiwavelength spectra and variability of blazars with leptonic and hadronic jet models is reviewed. Special emphasis is placed on X-ray spectral variability of low-frequency peaked…
As powerful gamma-ray engines, blazars -- relativistic plasma jets launched toward Earth from active galactic nuclei -- are manifestly high-energy particle accelerators. Yet, exactly how these jets accelerate particles as well as what they…