Related papers: Powers and Magnetization of Blazar Jets
The composition and energy dissipation in jets are two of the fundamental questions of jet physics that are not fully understood. In this paper, we attempt to constrain the composition, magnetization as well as radiative efficiency for…
Luminosities of many powerful blazars are strongly dominated by $\gamma$-rays which most likely result from Comptonization of radiation produced outside a jet. This observation sets certain constraints on composition and energetics of the…
We discuss the relation between the power carried by relativistic jets and the nuclear power provided by accretion, for a group of blazars including FSRQs and BL Lac objects. They are characterized by good quality broad band X-ray data…
We estimate the power of relativistic, extragalactic jets by modelling the spectral energy distribution of a large number of blazars. We adopt a simple one-zone, homogeneous, leptonic synchrotron and inverse Compton model, taking into…
We have not identified for sure what is the mechanism launching, accelerating and collimating relativistic jets. The two most likely possibilities are the gravitational energy of the accreting matter or the rotational energy of a spinning…
We propose and test a fairly simple idea that could account for the blazar sequence: all jets are launched with similar energy per baryon, independently of their power. For instance, flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), the most powerful…
The current paradigm foresees that relativistic jets are launched as magnetically dominated flows, whose magnetic power is progressively converted to kinetic power of of the matter of the jet, until equipartition is reached. Therefore, at…
The matter content of extragalactic relativistic jets is still an unsolved issue. There are strong arguments against pure electron-positron pair jets, but pairs could outnumber the electrons associated with protons by a factor 10-20. This…
Blazars are a rare class of active galactic nuclei (AGN) with relativistic jets pointing towards the observer. Jets are thought to be launched as Poynting-flux dominated outflows that accelerate to relativistic speeds at the expense of the…
Observations of gamma-ray-bursts and jets from active galactic nuclei reveal that the jet flow is characterized by a high radiative efficiency and that the dissipative mechanism must be a powerful accelerator of non-thermal particles.…
Simultaneous observations of blazars in different spectral regimes imply that the amplitude of variability depends on the observational band. Both in the low energy spectral component and in the high energy spectral component, the amplitude…
The power of blazar jets rivals the power that gravity can extract from accreting matter. The mechanism launching and accelerating jets can be considered as the most efficient engine operating in radio--loud sources. It is still a matter of…
Through the modelling of the Spectral Energy Distribution of blazars we can infer the physical parameters required to originate the flux we see. Then we can estimate the power of blazar jets in the form of matter and fields. These estimates…
If quasar jets are accelerated by magnetic fields but terminate as matter dominated, where and how does the transition occur between the Poynting-dominated and matter-dominated regimes? To address this question, we study constraints which…
Theoretical models for the production of relativistic jets from active galactic nuclei predict that jet power arises from the spin and mass of the central black hole, as well as the magnetic field near the event horizon. The physical…
We discuss the physical properties of four quasar jets imaged with the Chandra X-ray Observatory in the course of a survey for X-ray emission from radio jets. These objects have sufficient counts to study their spatially resolved…
The most extreme active galactic nuclei (AGN) are the radio active ones whose relativistic jet propagates close to our line of sight. These objects were first classified according to their emission line features into flat-spectrum radio…
The power of a relativistic jet depends on the number of leptons and protons carried by the jet itself. We have reasons to believe that powerful gamma-ray flat spectrum radio sources emit most of their radiation where radiative cooling is…
Rapid and luminous flares of non-thermal radiation observed in blazars require an efficient mechanism of energy dissipation and particle acceleration in relativistic active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets. Particle acceleration in relativistic…
We study particle acceleration and radiative processes in Blazar jets under recurring conditions set by gravitational perturbations in supermassive binary systems. We consider the action from a companion orbiting a primary black hole of…