Related papers: Low power BL Lacertae objects and the blazar seque…
We present a comprehensive temporal and spectral analysis of a few blazars using multi-wavelength observations. Rapid flux variations are quantified via the doubling/halving timescale method, revealing the shortest variability timescales of…
The overall spectra (SED) of blazars, from radio to gamma-ray energies, seem to obey well defined trends, with a continuity of properties between blazars of different classes. To quantify this statement we can either investigate their…
The origin of fast flux variability in blazars is a long-standing problem, with many theoretical models proposed to explain it. In this study, we focus on BL Lacertae to model its spectral energy distribution (SED) and broadband light…
Blazars exhibit multiwavelength variability, a phenomenon whose underlying mechanisms remain elusive. This study investigates the origin of such variability through leptonic blazar emission simulations, focusing on stochastic fluctuations…
We analyse a group of radio sources, a subset of the 200 mJy sample, all of which have core-jet radio structures measured with VLBI and have flat spectra stretching from the radio to the millimetre/sub-millimetre band. Thus the objects have…
A property common to several different astrophysical sources of high-energy gamma-rays is the presence of bulk motion at relativistic speed. The intrinsic spectra of the nonthermal radiating particles also show interesting similarities,…
In turbulent magnetized plasmas, charged particles can be accelerated to high energies through their interactions with the turbulent motions. As they do so, they draw energy from the turbulence, possibly up to the point where they start…
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…
The phenomenology of gamma-ray bright blazars can be accounted for by a sequence in the source power and intensity of the diffuse radiation field surrounding the relativistic jet. Correspondingly, the equilibrium particle distribution peaks…
A quantitative theory of spectral lags for $\gamma$-ray bursts (GRBs) is given. The underlying hypothesis is that GRB subpulses are photons that are scattered into our line of sight by local concentrations of baryons that are accelerated by…
The "blazar sequence" posits that the most powerful BL Lacertae objects and flat-spectrum radio quasars should have relatively small synchrotron peak frequencies, nu_peak, and that the least powerful such objects should have the highest…
The author presents a model for variability of the flux and polarization of blazars in which turbulent plasma flowing at a relativistic speed down a jet crosses a standing conical shock. The shock compresses the plasma and accelerates…
We have considered all blazars observed in the X-ray band and for which the slope of the X-ray spectrum is available. We have collected 421 spectra of 268 blazars, including 12 archival unpublished ASCA spectra of 7 blazars whose analysisis…
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…
Internal shocks between propagating plasma shells, originally ejected at different times with different velocities are believed to play a major role in dissipating the kinetic energy, thereby explaining the observed lightcurve and spectra…
The blazar sequence, including negative correlations between radiative luminosity $L_{\rm rad}$ and synchrotron peak frequency $\nu$, and between Compton dominance $Y$ and $\nu$, is widely adopted as a phenomenological description of…
Many luminous blazars which are associated with quasar-type active galactic nuclei display broad-band spectra characterized by a large luminosity ratio of their high-energy (gamma-ray) and low-energy (synchrotron) spectral components. This…
The particle acceleration of blazar jets is crucial to high-energy astrophysics, yet the acceleration mechanism division in blazar subclasses and the underlying nature of these mechanisms remain elusive. In this work, we utilized the…
Relativistic shocks accelerate particles by the first order Fermi mechanism. These particles then emit synchrotron emission in the post shock gas. We have developed a numerical code which integrates the relativistic Euler equations for…
The present status and understanding of the "spectral sequence" of blazars is discussed in the perspective of the upcoming GLAST launch. The vast improvement in sensitivity will allow to i) determine more objectively the "average" gamma-ray…