Related papers: Blazars, Gamma Ray Bursts and Galactic superlumina…
Relativistic outflows are a common phenomenon in accreting black holes. Despite the enormous differences in scale, stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries and collapsars, and super-massive black holes at the dynamic centre of galaxies…
Most of the electromagnetic output of blazars (BL Lac objects and Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars) comes out in the gamma-ray band, making the Large Area Telescope [0.1-100 GeV] onboard the Fermi satellite and the Cherenkov telescopes crucial…
Blazars, a subset of powerful active galactic nuclei, feature relativistic jets that shine in a broadband electromagnetic radiation, e. g. from radio to TeV emission. Here I present the results of the studies that explore gamma-ray and…
Growing observational evidence supports the proposition that gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are powered by relativistic jets from massive helium stars whose cores have collapsed to black holes and an accretion disk (collapsars). We model the…
There is strong observational evidence that AGN, Galactic X-ray transients and (probably) $\gamma$-ray bursts are associated with black holes, and that these sources are able to form collimated, ultrarelativistic outflows. There is much…
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…
Blazars are sources whose jet is pointing to us. Since their jets are relativistic, the flux is greatly amplified in the direction of motion, making blazars the most powerful persistent objects in the Universe. This is true at all…
Gamma-ray blazars are among the most extreme astrophysical sources, harboring phenomena far more energetic than those attainable by terrestrial accelerators. These galaxies are understood to be active galactic nuclei that are powered by…
We investigate the dissipation of the bulk kinetic energy of a relativistic jet at different distances from the central power--house and analyse in detail how the dissipated energy is radiated away. We assume that the location of the…
The origin of the high-energy emission in astrophysical jets from black holes is a highly debated issue. This is particularly true for jets from supermassive black holes that are among the most powerful particle accelerators in the…
The new high energy data coming mainly from the Fermi and Swift satellites and from the ground based Cerenkov telescopes are making possible to study not only the energetics of blazar jets, but also their connection to the associated…
Relativistic outflows are a common phenomenon in accreting black holes. Despite the enormous differences in scale, accreting stellar-mass black holes (X-ray binaries, collapsars) and super-massive black holes produce jets with analogous…
Relativistic jets from accreting supermassive black holes at cosmological distances can be powerful emitters of $\gamma$-rays. However, the precise mechanisms and locations responsible for the dissipation of energy within these jets,…
Estimates on different scales of the power of relativistic bulk motion in extragalactic and galactic jets are presented. The power in the jets and the power produced by the accretion disk are found to be roughly equal. This may suggest an…
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…
A variety of arguments suggest that the most common form of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), those longer than a few seconds, involve the formation of black holes in supernova-like events. Two kinds of ``collapsar'' models are discussed, those in…
Presently there are several classes of detected gamma-ray extragalatic sources. They are mostly associated to active galactic nuclei (AGN) and (at soft gamma rays) to gamma-ray bursts (GRB), but not only. Active galactic nuclei consist of…
The spectra of blazars form a sequence which can be parametrized in term of their observed bolometric luminosity. At the most powerful extreme of the sequence we find objects whose jet power can rival the power extracted by accretion, while…
Cosmological GRBs are discussed with an emphasis on their plausible connection with black holes. GRBs can be triggered by collapse of stellar-mass objects that leads to formation of a black hole and a transient debris disk with a huge…
The emission from black hole binaries (BHBs) and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) displays significant aperiodic variabilities. The most promising explanation for these variabilities is the propagating fluctuations in the accretion flow. It is…