2006/08/31 by M. Böttcher, Markus Boettcher · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Blazar #Cherenkov radiation #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Detector #Electromagnetic spectrum #Galaxy #Gamma ray #Line-of-sight #Nuclear physics #Observable #Particle acceleration #Physics #Plasma #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Synchrotron radiation #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10509-007-9404-0
published as Astrophys.SpaceSci.309:95-104,2007 · Invited Review at "The Multimessenger Approach to Gamma-Ray Sources", Barcelona, Spain, July 2006; submitted to Astrophysics and Space Science. 10 pages, including 6 eps figures. Uses Springer's ApSS macros
arxiv created 2006/08/31 · openalex publication_date 2007/04/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
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 most likely originates in a relativistic jet oriented at a small angle with respect to the line of sight. This review starts out with a general overview of the phenomenology of blazars, including results from a recent multiwavelength observing campaign on 3C279. Subsequently, issues of modeling broadband spectra will be discussed. Spectral information alone is not sufficient to distinguish between competing models and to constrain essential parameters, in particular related to the primary particle acceleration and radiation mechanisms in the jet. Short-term spectral variability information may help to break such model degeneracies, which will require snap-shot spectral information on intraday time scales, which may soon be achievable for many blazars even in the gamma-ray regime with the upcoming GLAST mission and current advances in Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope technology. In addition to pure leptonic and hadronic models of gamma-ray emission from blazars, leptonic/hadronic hybrid models are reviewed, and the recently developed hadronic synchrotron mirror model for TeV gamma-ray flares which are not accompanied by simultaneous X-ray flares (``orphan TeV flares'') is revisited.