Related papers: Active Galaxies as Particle Accelerators
The origin of the ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) with energies above E > 1017eV, is still unknown. The discovery of their sources will reveal the engines of the most energetic astrophysical accelerators in the universe. This is a…
Galaxy mergers provide a mechanism for galaxies to effectively funnel gas and materials toward their nuclei and fuel the central starbursts and accretion of supermassive black holes. In turn, the active nuclei drive galactic-scale outflows…
Most cosmic ray particles observed derive from the explosions of massive stars, which commonly produce stellar black holes in their supernova explosions. When two such black holes find themselves in a tight binary system they finally merge…
Recent observations with ALMA have revealed evidence for non-thermal synchrotron emission from the core regions of two nearby Seyfert galaxies. This suggests that the coronae of accretion disks in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can be…
Powerful radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) with large Mpc-scale jets have been theoretically motivated as emitters of high-energy cosmic rays. Recent radio observations have established a populous class of young radio-loud galaxies…
Active Galactic Nuclei are fueled from material (gas or stars) that are in general far away from the gravitational influence of the central black hole, the engine thought to be responsible for their activity. The required material has a lot…
The development of techniques whereby gamma rays of energy 100 GeV and above can be studied from the ground, using indirect, but sensitive, techniques has opened up a new area of high energy photon astronomy. The most exciting result that…
The impact of non-thermal processes on the spectral energy distributions of galaxies can be dramatic, but such processes are often neglected in considerations of their structure and evolution. Particle acceleration associated with high mass…
The article gives a brief overview, aimed at nonspecialists, about the goals and selected recent results of the detection of very-high energy gamma-rays (energies above 100 GeV) with ground based detectors. The stress is on the physics…
We present a review of the current status of very high energy gamma-ray astronomy. The development of the atmospheric Cherenkov imaging technique for ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has led to a rapid growth in the number of observatories.…
We study numerically particle acceleration by the electric field induced near the horizon of a rotating supermassive (M \sim 10^9-10^{10} M_{\odot}) black hole embedded in the magnetic field B. We find that acceleration of protons to energy…
It is generally held that >100 TeV emission from astrophysical objects unambiguously demonstrates the presence of PeV protons or nuclei, due to the unavoidable Klein-Nishina suppression of inverse Compton emission from electrons. However,…
Recent measurements of gamma rays from the powerful quasar 3C273 by the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory show that a powerful cosmic accelerator must be operating. In this paper the evidence for proton acceleration is collected with the result…
Under the assumption that jets in active galactic nuclei are powered by accretion and the spin of the central supermassive black hole, we are able to reproduce the radio luminosity functions of high- and low-excitation galaxies.…
Massive black holes at the centers of galaxies can launch powerful wide-angle winds that, if sustained over time, can unbind the gas from the stellar bulges of galaxies. These winds may be responsible for the observed scaling relation…
I discuss the recent exciting results of discovery of TeV photons from several galactic and extragalactic sources, and highlight some objectives of VHE gamma ray astronomy that can be achieved in the near future by means of new generation…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays interacting with the radiation fields in the universe cause electromagnetic cascades resulting in a flux of extragalactic gamma rays, detectable to some 100 GeV. Recent precise measurements of the extragalactic…
The IceCube experiment discovered PeV-energy neutrinos originating beyond our Galaxy with an energy flux that is comparable to that of TeV-energy gamma rays and EeV-energy cosmic rays. Neutrinos provide the only unobstructed view of the…
We investigate acceleration of cosmic rays by shocks and accretion flows in galaxy clusters. Numerical results for spectra of accelerated particles and nonthermal emission are presented. It is shown that the acceleration of protons and…
Long-term observations of the Galactic center by Fermi and HESS have revealed a novel phenomenon: the high-energy gamma-ray spectrum from the Galactic center exhibits a double power-law structure. In this study, we propose a new explanation…