@article{XueLiuWangetal.2019, author = {Xue, Rui and Liu, Ruo-Yu and Wang, Xiang-Yu and Yan, Huirong and B{\"o}ttcher, Markus}, title = {On the minimum jet power of TeV BL Lac objects in the p-gamma model}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {871}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, number = {1}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aaf720}, pages = {10}, year = {2019}, abstract = {We study the requirement of the jet power in the conventional p-gamma models (photopion production and Bethe-Heitler pair production) for TeV BL Lac objects. We select a sample of TeV BL Lac objects whose spectral energy distributions are difficult to explain by the one-zone leptonic model. Based on the relation between the p-gamma interaction efficiency and the opacity of gamma gamma absorption, we find that the detection of TeV emission poses upper limits on the p-gamma interaction efficiencies in these sources and hence minimum jet powers can be derived accordingly. We find that the obtained minimum jet powers exceed the Eddington luminosity of the supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Implications for the accretion mode of the SMBHs in these BL Lac objects and the origin of their TeV emissions are discussed.}, language = {en} } @article{OhmHoischen2018, author = {Ohm, Stefan and Hoischen, Clemens}, title = {On the expected gamma-ray emission from nearby flaring stars}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {474}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, number = {1}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/stx2806}, pages = {1335 -- 1341}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Stellar flares have been extensively studied in soft X-rays (SXRs) by basically every X-ray mission. Hard X-ray (HXR) emission from stellar superflares, however, have only been detected from a handful of objects over the past years. One very extreme event was the superflare from the young M-dwarf DGCVn binary star system, which triggered Swift/BAT as if it was a gamma-ray burst. In this work, we estimate the expected gamma-ray emission from DGCVn and the most extreme stellar flares by extrapolating from solar flares based on measured solar energetic particles (SEPs), as well as thermal and non-thermal emission properties. We find that ions are plausibly accelerated in stellar superflares to 100 GeV energies, and possibly up to TeV energies in the associated coronal mass ejections. The corresponding pi(0)-decay gamma-ray emission could be detectable from stellar superflares with ground-based gamma-ray telescopes. On the other hand, the detection of gamma-ray emission implies particle densities high enough that ions suffer significant losses due to inelastic proton-proton scattering. The next-generation Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) should be able to probe superflares from M dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood and constrain the energy in interacting cosmic rays and/or their maximum energy. The detection of gamma-ray emission from stellar flares would open a new window for the study of stellar physics, the underlying physical processes in flares and their impact on habitability of planetary systems.}, language = {en} } @article{delValleMuellerRomero2018, author = {del Valle, Maria Victoria and M{\"u}ller, A. L. and Romero, G. E.}, title = {High-energy radiation from collisions of high-velocity clouds and the Galactic disc}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {475}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, number = {4}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/stx2984}, pages = {4298 -- 4308}, year = {2018}, abstract = {High-velocity clouds (HVCs) are interstellar clouds of atomic hydrogen that do not follow normal Galactic rotation and have velocities of a several hundred kilometres per second. A considerable number of these clouds are falling down towards the Galactic disc. HVCs form large and massive complexes, so if they collide with the disc a great amount of energy would be released into the interstellar medium. The cloud-disc interaction produces two shocks: one propagates through the cloud and the other through the disc. The properties of these shocks depend mainly on the cloud velocity and the disc-cloud density ratio. In this work, we study the conditions necessary for these shocks to accelerate particles by diffusive shock acceleration and we study the non-thermal radiation that is produced. We analyse particle acceleration in both the cloud and disc shocks. Solving a time-dependent two-dimensional transport equation for both relativistic electrons and protons, we obtain particle distributions and non-thermal spectral energy distributions. In a shocked cloud, significant synchrotron radio emission is produced along with soft gamma rays. In the case of acceleration in the shocked disc, the non-thermal radiation is stronger; the gamma rays, of leptonic origin, might be detectable with current instruments. A large number of protons are injected into the Galactic interstellar medium, and locally exceed the cosmic ray background. We conclude that under adequate conditions the contribution from HVC-disc collisions to the galactic population of relativistic particles and the associated extended non-thermal radiation might be important.}, language = {en} } @article{AbdoAckermannAjelloetal.2011, author = {Abdo, A. A. and Ackermann, Margit and Ajello, M. and Allafort, A. J. and Baldini, L. and Ballet, J. and Barbiellini, G. and Baring, M. G. and Bastieri, D. and Bechtol, K. C. and Bellazzini, R. and Berenji, B. and Blandford, R. D. and Bloom, E. D. and Bonamente, E. and Borgland, A. W. and Bouvier, A. and Brandt, T. J. and Bregeon, Johan and Brez, A. and Brigida, M. and Bruel, P. and Buehler, R. and Buson, S. and Caliandro, G. A. and Cameron, R. A. and Cannon, A. and Caraveo, P. A. and Carrigan, Svenja and Casandjian, J. M. and Cavazzuti, E. and Cecchi, C. and Celik, O. and Charles, E. and Chekhtman, A. and Cheung, C. C. and Chiang, J. and Ciprini, S. and Claus, R. and Cohen-Tanugi, J. and Conrad, Jan and Cutini, S. and Dermer, C. D. and de Palma, F. and do Couto e Silva, E. and Drell, P. S. and Dubois, R. and Dumora, D. and Favuzzi, C. and Fegan, S. J. and Ferrara, E. C. and Focke, W. B. and Fortin, P. and Frailis, M. and Fuhrmann, L. and Fukazawa, Y. and Funk, S. and Fusco, P. and Gargano, F. and Gasparrini, D. and Gehrels, N. and Germani, S. and Giglietto, N. and Giordano, F. and Giroletti, M. and Glanzman, T. and Godfrey, G. and Grenier, I. A. and Guillemot, L. and Guiriec, S. and Hayashida, M. and Hays, E. and Horan, D. and Hughes, R. E. and Johannesson, G. and Johnson, A. S. and Johnson, W. N. and Kadler, M. and Kamae, T. and Katagiri, H. and Kataoka, J. and Knoedlseder, J. and Kuss, M. and Lande, J. and Latronico, L. and Lee, S. -H. and Lemoine-Goumard, M. and Longo, F. and Loparco, F. and Lott, B. and Lovellette, M. N. and Lubrano, P. and Madejski, G. M. and Makeev, A. and Max-Moerbeck, W. and Mazziotta, Mario Nicola and McEnery, J. E. and Mehault, J. and Michelson, P. F. and Mitthumsiri, W. and Mizuno, T. and Moiseev, A. A. and Monte, C. and Monzani, M. E. and Morselli, A. and Moskalenko, I. V. and Murgia, S. and Naumann-Godo, M. and Nishino, S. and Nolan, P. L. and Norris, J. P. and Nuss, E. and Ohsugi, T. and Okumura, A. and Omodei, N. and Orlando, E. and Ormes, J. F. and Paneque, D. and Panetta, J. H. and Parent, D. and Pavlidou, V. and Pearson, T. J. and Pelassa, V. and Pepe, M. and Pesce-Rollins, M. and Piron, F. and Porter, T. A. and Raino, S. and Rando, R. and Razzano, M. and Readhead, A. and Reimer, A. and Reimer, O. and Richards, J. L. and Ripken, J. and Ritz, S. and Roth, M. and Sadrozinski, H. F. -W. and Sanchez, D. and Sander, A. and Scargle, J. D. and Sgro, C. and Siskind, E. J. and Smith, P. D. and Spandre, G. and Spinelli, P. and Stawarz, L. and Stevenson, M. and Strickman, M. S. and Sokolovsky, K. V. and Suson, D. J. and Takahashi, H. and Takahashi, T. and Tanaka, T. and Thayer, J. B. and Thayer, J. G. and Thompson, D. J. and Tibaldo, L. and Torres, F. and Tosti, G. and Tramacere, A. and Uchiyama, Y. and Usher, T. L. and Vandenbroucke, J. and Vasileiou, V. and Vilchez, N. and Vitale, V. and Waite, A. P. and Wang, P. and Wehrle, A. E. and Winer, B. L. and Wood, K. S. and Yang, Z. and Ylinen, T. and Zensus, J. A. and Ziegler, M. and Aleksic, J. and Antonelli, L. A. and Antoranz, P. and Backes, Michael and Barrio, J. A. and Gonzalez, J. Becerra and Bednarek, W. and Berdyugin, A. and Berger, K. and Bernardini, E. and Biland, A. and Blanch Bigas, O. and Bock, R. K. and Boller, A. and Bonnoli, G. and Bordas, Pol and Tridon, D. Borla and Bosch-Ramon, Valentin and Bose, D. and Braun, I. and Bretz, T. and Camara, M. and Carmona, E. and Carosi, A. and Colin, P. and Colombo, E. and Contreras, J. L. and Cortina, J. and Covino, S. and Dazzi, F. and de Angelis, A. and del Pozo, E. De Cea and De Lotto, B. and De Maria, M. and De Sabata, F. and Mendez, C. Delgado and Ortega, A. Diago and Doert, M. and Dominguez, A. and Prester, Dijana Dominis and Dorner, D. and Doro, M. and Elsaesser, D. and Ferenc, D. and Fonseca, M. V. and Font, L. and Lopen, R. J. Garcia and Garczarczyk, M. and Gaug, M. and Giavitto, G. and Godinovi, N. and Hadasch, D. and Herrero, A. and Hildebrand, D. and Hoehne-Moench, D. and Hose, J. and Hrupec, D. and Jogler, T. and Klepser, S. and Kraehenbuehl, T. and Kranich, D. and Krause, J. and La Barbera, A. and Leonardo, E. and Lindfors, E. and Lombardi, S. and Lopez, M. and Lorenz, E. and Majumdar, P. and Makariev, E. and Maneva, G. and Mankuzhiyil, N. and Mannheim, K. and Maraschi, L. and Mariotti, M. and Martinez, M. and Mazin, D. and Meucci, M. and Miranda, J. M. and Mirzoyan, R. and Miyamoto, H. and Moldon, J. and Moralejo, A. and Nieto, D. and Nilsson, K. and Orito, R. and Oya, I. and Paoletti, R. and Paredes, J. M. and Partini, S. and Pasanen, M. and Pauss, F. and Pegna, R. G. and Perez-Torres, M. A. and Persic, M. and Peruzzo, J. and Pochon, J. and Moroni, P. G. Prada and Prada, F. and Prandini, E. and Puchades, N. and Puljak, I. and Reichardt, T. and Reinthal, R. and Rhode, W. and Ribo, M. and Rico, J. and Rissi, M. and Ruegamer, S. and Saggion, A. and Saito, K. and Saito, T. Y. and Salvati, M. and Sanchez-Conde, M. and Satalecka, K. and Scalzotto, V. and Scapin, V. and Schultz, C. and Schweizer, T. and Shayduk, M. and Shore, S. N. and Sierpowska-Bartosik, A. and Sillanpaa, A. and Sitarek, J. and Sobczynska, D. and Spanier, F. and Spiro, S. and Stamerra, A. and Steinke, B. and Storz, J. and Strah, N. and Struebig, J. C. and Suric, T. and Takalo, L. O. and Tavecchio, F. and Temnikov, P. and Terzic, T. and Tescaro, D. and Teshima, M. and Vankov, H. and Wagner, R. M. and Weitzel, Q. and Zabalza, V. and Zandanel, F. and Zanin, R. and Acciari, V. A. and Arlen, T. and Aune, T. and Benbow, W. and Boltuch, D. and Bradbury, S. M. and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Cannon, A. and Cesarini, A. and Ciupik, L. and Cui, W. and Dickherber, R. and Errando, M. and Falcone, A. and Finley, J. P. and Finnegan, G. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Galante, N. and Gall, D. and Gillanders, G. H. and Godambe, S. and Grube, J. and Guenette, R. and Gyuk, G. and Hanna, D. and Holder, J. and Huang, D. and Hui, C. M. and Humensky, T. B. and Kaaret, P. and Karlsson, N. and Kertzman, M. and Kieda, D. and Konopelko, A. and Krawczynski, H. and Krennrich, F. and Lang, M. J. and Maier, G. and McArthur, S. and McCann, A. and McCutcheon, M. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and Ong, R. and Otte, N. and Pandel, D. and Perkins, J. S. and Pichel, A. and Pohl, M. and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Reyes, L. C. and Reynolds, P. T. and Roache, E. and Rose, H. J. and Rovero, A. C. and Schroedter, M. and Sembroski, G. H. and Senturk, G. D. and Steele, D. and Swordy, S. P. and Tesic, G. and Theiling, M. and Thibadeau, S. and Varlotta, A. and Vincent, S. and Wakely, S. P. and Ward, J. E. and Weekes, T. C. and Weinstein, A. and Weisgarber, T. and Williams, D. A. and Wood, M. and Zitzer, B. and Villata, M. and Raiteri, C. M. and Aller, H. D. and Aller, M. F. and Arkharov, A. A. and Blinov, D. A. and Calcidese, P. and Chen, W. P. and Efimova, N. V. and Kimeridze, G. and Konstantinova, T. S. and Kopatskaya, E. N. and Koptelova, E. and Kurtanidze, O. M. and Kurtanidze, S. O. and Lahteenmaki, A. and Larionov, V. M. and Larionova, E. G. and Larionova, L. V. and Ligustri, R. and Morozova, D. A. and Nikolashvili, M. G. and Sigua, L. A. and Troitsky, I. S. and Angelakis, E. and Capalbi, M. and Carraminana, A. and Carrasco, L. and Cassaro, P. and de la Fuente, E. and Gurwell, M. A. and Kovalev, Y. Y. and Kovalev, Yu. A. and Krichbaum, T. P. and Krimm, H. A. and Leto, Paolo and Lister, M. L. and Maccaferri, G. and Moody, J. W. and Mori, Y. and Nestoras, I. and Orlati, A. and Pagani, C. and Pace, C. and Pearson, R. and Perri, M. and Piner, B. G. and Pushkarev, A. B. and Ros, E. and Sadun, A. C. and Sakamoto, T. and Tornikoski, M. and Yatsu, Y. and Zook, A.}, title = {Insights into the high-energy gamma-Ray emission of markarian 501 fromextensive multifrequency observations in the fermi era}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {727}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, organization = {Fermi-LAT Collaboration, MAGIC Collaboration, VERITAS Collaboration}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/727/2/129}, pages = {26}, year = {2011}, abstract = {We report on the gamma-ray activity of the blazar Mrk 501 during the first 480 days of Fermi operation. We find that the average Large Area Telescope (LAT) gamma-ray spectrum of Mrk 501 can be well described by a single power-law function with a photon index of 1.78 +/- 0.03. While we observe relatively mild flux variations with the Fermi-LAT (within less than a factor of two), we detect remarkable spectral variability where the hardest observed spectral index within the LAT energy range is 1.52 +/- 0.14, and the softest one is 2.51 +/- 0.20. These unexpected spectral changes do not correlate with the measured flux variations above 0.3 GeV. In this paper, we also present the first results from the 4.5 month long multifrequency campaign (2009 March 15-August 1) on Mrk 501, which included the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), Swift, RXTE, MAGIC, and VERITAS, the F-GAMMA, GASP-WEBT, and other collaborations and instruments which provided excellent temporal and energy coverage of the source throughout the entire campaign. The extensive radio to TeV data set from this campaign provides us with the most detailed spectral energy distribution yet collected for this source during its relatively low activity. The average spectral energy distribution of Mrk 501 is well described by the standard one-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model. In the framework of this model, we find that the dominant emission region is characterized by a size less than or similar to 0.1 pc (comparable within a factor of few to the size of the partially resolved VLBA core at 15-43 GHz), and that the total jet power (similar or equal to 10(44) erg s(-1)) constitutes only a small fraction (similar to 10(-3)) of the Eddington luminosity. The energy distribution of the freshly accelerated radiating electrons required to fit the time-averaged data has a broken power-law form in the energy range 0.3 GeV-10 TeV, with spectral indices 2.2 and 2.7 below and above the break energy of 20 GeV. We argue that such a form is consistent with a scenario in which the bulk of the energy dissipation within the dominant emission zone of Mrk 501 is due to relativistic, proton-mediated shocks. We find that the ultrarelativistic electrons and mildly relativistic protons within the blazar zone, if comparable in number, are in approximate energy equipartition, with their energy dominating the jet magnetic field energy by about two orders of magnitude.}, language = {en} } @article{ZachariasChenWagner2017, author = {Zacharias, Michael and Chen, Xuhui and Wagner, Stefan}, title = {Attenuation of TeV gamma-rays by the starlight photon field of the host galaxy}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {465}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, number = {3}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/stw3032}, pages = {3767 -- 3774}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The absorption of TeV gamma-ray photons produced in relativistic jets by surrounding soft photon fields is a long-standing problem of jet physics. In some cases, the most likely emission site close to the central black hole is ruled out because of the high opacity caused by strong optical and infrared photon sources, such as the broad-line region. Mostly neglected for jet modelling is the absorption of gamma-rays in the starlight photon field of the host galaxy. Analysing the absorption for arbitrary locations and observation angles of the gamma-ray emission site within the host galaxy, we find that the distance to the galaxy centre, the observation angle, and the distribution of starlight in the galaxy are crucial for the amount of absorption. We derive the absorption value for a sample of 20 TeV-detected blazars with a redshift z(r) < 0.2. The absorption value of the gamma-ray emission located in the galaxy centre may be as high as 20 per cent, with an average value of 6 per cent. This is important in order to determine the intrinsic blazar parameters. We see no significant trends in our sample between the degree of absorption and host properties, such as starlight emissivity, galactic size, half-light radius, and redshift. While the uncertainty of the spectral properties of the extragalactic background light exceeds the effect of absorption by stellar light from the host galaxy in distant objects, the latter is a dominant effect in nearby sources. It may also be revealed in a differential comparison of sources with similar redshifts.}, language = {en} } @article{AleksicAnsoldiAntonellietal.2015, author = {Aleksic, J. and Ansoldi, S. and Antonelli, L. A. and Antoranz, P. and Babic, A. and Bangale, P. and de Almeida, U. Barres and Barrio, J. A. and Gonzalez, J. Becerra and Bednarek, W. and Bernardini, E. and Biasuzzi, B. and Biland, A. and Blanch Bigas, O. and Boller, A. and Bonnefoy, S. and Bonnoli, G. and Borracci, F. and Bretz, T. and Carmona, E. and Carosi, A. and Colin, P. and Colombo, E. and Contreras, J. L. and Cortina, J. and Covino, S. and Da Vela, P. and Dazzi, F. and De Angelis, A. and De Caneva, G. and De Lotto, B. and Wilhelmi, E. de Ona and Mendez, C. Delgado and Prester, Dijana Dominis and Dorner, D. and Doro, M. and Einecke, S. and Eisenacher, D. and Elsaesser, D. and Fonseca, M. V. and Font, L. and Frantzen, K. and Fruck, C. and Galindo, D. and Lopez, R. J. Garcia and Garczarczyk, M. and Terrats, D. Garrido and Gaug, M. and Godinovic, N. and Munoz, A. Gonzalez and Gozzini, S. R. and Hadasch, D. and Hanabata, Y. and Hayashida, M. and Herrera, J. and Hildebrand, D. and Hose, J. and Hrupec, D. and Hughes, G. and Idec, W. and Kadenius, V. and Kellermann, H. and Knoetig, M. L. and Kodani, K. and Konno, Y. and Krause, J. and Kubo, H. and Kushida, J. and La Barbera, A. and Lelas, D. and Lewandowska, N. and Lindfors, E. and Lombardi, S. and Lopez, M. and Lopez-Coto, R. and Lopez-Oramas, A. and Lorenz, E. and Lozano, I. and Makariev, M. and Mallot, K. and Maneva, G. and Mankuzhiyil, N. and Mannheim, K. and Maraschi, L. and Marcote, B. and Mariotti, M. and Martinez, M. and Mazin, D. and Menzel, U. and Miranda, J. M. and Mirzoyan, R. and Moralejo, A. and Munar-Adrover, P. and Nakajima, D. and Niedzwiecki, A. and Nilsson, K. and Nishijima, K. and Noda, K. and Orito, R. and Overkemping, A. and Paiano, S. and Palatiello, M. and Paneque, D. and Paoletti, R. and Paredes, J. M. and Paredes-Fortuny, X. and Persic, M. and Moroni, P. G. Prada and Prandini, E. and Puljak, I. and Reinthal, R. and Rhode, W. and Ribo, M. and Rico, J. and Garcia, J. Rodriguez and Rugamer, S. and Saito, T. and Saito, K. and Satalecka, K. and Scalzotto, V. and Scapin, V. and Schultz, C. and Schweizer, T. and Sun, S. and Shore, S. N. and Sillanpaa, A. and Sitarek, J. and Snidaric, I. and Sobczynska, D. and Spanier, F. and Stamatescu, V. and Stamerra, A. and Steinbring, T. and Steinke, B. and Storz, J. and Strzys, M. and Takalo, L. and Takami, H. and Tavecchio, F. and Temnikov, P. and Terzic, T. and Tescaro, D. and Teshima, M. and Thaele, J. and Tibolla, O. and Torres, D. F. and Toyama, T. and Treves, A. and Uellenbeck, M. and Vogler, P. and Zanin, R. and Archambault, S. and Archer, A. and Beilicke, M. and Benbow, W. and Berger, K. and Bird, R. and Biteau, Jonathan and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Cerruti, M. and Chen, Xiaoming and Ciupik, L. and Collins-Hughes, E. and Cui, W. and Eisch, J. D. and Falcone, A. and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fortin, P. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Galante, N. and Gillanders, G. H. and Griffin, S. and Gyuk, G. and Hakansson, Nils and Holder, J. and Johnson, C. A. and Kaaret, P. and Kar, P. and Kertzman, M. and Kieda, D. and Lang, M. J. and McArthur, S. and McCann, A. and Meagher, K. and Millis, J. and Moriarty, P. and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Perkins, J. S. and Pichel, A. and Pohl, Manuela and Popkow, A. and Prokoph, H. and Pueschel, Elisa and Ragan, K. and Reyes, L. C. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, G. T. and Roache, E. and Rovero, A. C. and Sembroski, G. H. and Shahinyan, K. and Staszak, D. and Telezhinsky, Igor O. and Tucci, J. V. and Tyler, J. and Varlotta, A. and Wakely, S. P. and Welsing, R. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, D. A. and Buson, S. and Finke, J. and Villata, M. and Raiteri, C. and Aller, H. D. and Aller, M. F. and Cesarini, A. and Chen, W. P. and Gurwell, M. A. and Jorstad, S. G. and Kimeridze, G. N. and Koptelova, E. and Kurtanidze, O. M. and Kurtanidze, S. O. and Lahteenmaki, A. and Larionov, V. M. and Larionova, E. G. and Lin, H. C. and McBreen, B. and Moody, J. W. and Morozova, D. A. and Marscher, A. P. and Max-Moerbeck, W. and Nikolashvili, M. G. and Perri, M. and Readhead, A. C. S. and Richards, J. L. and Ros, J. A. and Sadun, A. C. and Sakamoto, T. and Sigua, L. A. and Smith, P. S. and Tornikoski, M. and Troitsky, I. S. and Wehrle, A. E. and Jordan, B.}, title = {Unprecedented study of the broadband emission of Mrk 421 during flaring activity in March 2010}, series = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, volume = {578}, journal = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, address = {Les Ulis}, organization = {MAGIC Collaboration, VERITAS Collaboration}, issn = {0004-6361}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201424811}, pages = {26}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Context. Because of its proximity, Mrk 421 is one of the best sources on which to study the nature of BL Lac objects. Its proximity allows us to characterize its broadband spectral energy distribution (SED). Aims. The goal is to better understand the mechanisms responsible for the broadband emission and the temporal evolution of Mrk 421. These mechanisms may also apply to more distant blazars that cannot be studied with the same level of detail. Methods. A flare occurring in March 2010 was observed for 13 consecutive days (from MJD 55 265 to MJD 55 277) with unprecedented wavelength coverage from radio to very high energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma-rays with MAGIC, VERITAS, Whipple, Fermi-LAT, MAXI, RXTE, Swift, GASP-WEBT, and several optical and radio telescopes. We modeled the day-scale SEDs with one-zone and two-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) models, investigated the physical parameters, and evaluated whether the observed broadband SED variability can be associated with variations in the relativistic particle population. Results. The activity of Mrk 421 initially was high and then slowly decreased during the 13-day period. The flux variability was remarkable at the X-ray and VHE bands, but it was minor or not significant at the other bands. The variability in optical polarization was also minor. These observations revealed an almost linear correlation between the X-ray flux at the 2-10 keV band and the VHE gamma-ray flux above 200 GeV, consistent with the gamma-rays being produced by inverse-Compton scattering in the Klein-Nishina regime in the framework of SSC models. The one-zone SSC model can describe the SED of each day for the 13 consecutive days reasonably well, which once more shows the success of this standard theoretical scenario to describe the SEDs of VHE BL Lacs such as Mrk 421. This flaring activity is also very well described by a two-zone SSC model, where one zone is responsible for the quiescent emission, while the other smaller zone, which is spatially separated from the first, contributes to the daily variable emission occurring at X-rays and VHE gamma-rays. The second blob is assumed to have a smaller volume and a narrow electron energy distribution with 3 x 10(4) < gamma < 6 x 10(5), where. is the Lorentz factor of the electrons. Such a two-zone scenario would naturally lead to the correlated variability at the X-ray and VHE bands without variability at the optical/UV band, as well as to shorter timescales for the variability at the X-ray and VHE bands with respect to the variability at the other bands. Conclusions. Both the one-zone and the two-zone SSC models can describe the daily SEDs via the variation of only four or five model parameters, under the hypothesis that the variability is associated mostly with the underlying particle population. This shows that the particle acceleration and cooling mechanism that produces the radiating particles might be the main mechanism responsible for the broadband SED variations during the flaring episodes in blazars. The two-zone SSC model provides a better agreement with the observed SED at the narrow peaks of the low-and high-energy bumps during the highest activity, although the reported one-zone SSC model could be further improved by varying the parameters related to the emitting region itself (delta, B and R), in addition to the parameters related to the particle population.}, language = {en} } @article{ArcherBarnackaBeilickeetal.2014, author = {Archer, A. and Barnacka, Anna and Beilicke, M. and Benbow, W. and Berger, K. and Bird, R. and Biteau, Jonathan and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Byrum, K. and Cardenzana, J. V. and Cerruti, M. and Chen, W. and Chen, Xiaoming and Ciupik, L. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, W. and Dickinson, H. J. and Dumm, J. and Eisch, J. D. and Falcone, A. and Federici, Simone and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fleischhack, H. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Galante, N. and Griffin, S. and Griffiths, S. T. and Grube, J. and Gyuk, G. and Hakansson, Nils and Hanna, D. and Holder, J. and Hughes, G. and Johnson, C. A. and Kaaret, P. and Kar, P. and Kertzman, M. and Khassen, Y. and Kieda, D. and Krawczynski, H. and Kumar, S. and Lang, M. J. and Maier, G. and McArthur, S. and McCann, A. and Meagher, K. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and Nieto, D. and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Park, N. and Perkins, J. S. and Pohl, Manuela and Popkow, A. and Prokoph, H. and Pueschel, Elisa and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Rajotte, J. and Reyes, L. C. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, G. T. and Roache, E. and Sembroski, G. H. and Shahinyan, K. and Smith, A. W. and Staszak, D. and Telezhinsky, Igor O. and Tucci, J. V. and Tyler, J. and Varlotta, A. and Vincent, S. and Wakely, S. P. and Weinstein, A. and Welsing, R. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, D. A. and Zajczyk, A. and Zitzer, B.}, title = {Very-high energy observations of the galactic center region by veritas IN 2010-2012}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {790}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/790/2/149}, pages = {9}, year = {2014}, abstract = {The Galactic center is an interesting region for high-energy (0.1-100 GeV) and very-high-energy (E > 100 GeV) gamma-ray observations. Potential sources of GeV/TeV gamma-ray emission have been suggested, e.g., the accretion of matter onto the supermassive black hole, cosmic rays from a nearby supernova remnant (e.g., Sgr A East), particle acceleration in a plerion, or the annihilation of dark matter particles. The Galactic center has been detected by EGRET and by Fermi/LAT in the MeV/GeV energy band. At TeV energies, the Galactic center was detected with moderate significance by the CANGAROO and Whipple 10 m telescopes and with high significance by H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS. We present the results from three years of VERITAS observations conducted at large zenith angles resulting in a detection of the Galactic center on the level of 18 standard deviations at energies above similar to 2.5 TeV. The energy spectrum is derived and is found to be compatible with hadronic, leptonic, and hybrid emission models discussed in the literature. Future, more detailed measurements of the high-energy cutoff and better constraints on the high-energy flux variability will help to refine and/or disentangle the individual models.}, language = {en} } @article{ZhangChenBoettcher2014, author = {Zhang, Haocheng and Chen, Xuhui and Boettcher, Markus}, title = {Synchrotron polarization in blazars}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {789}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, number = {1}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/789/1/66}, pages = {16}, year = {2014}, abstract = {We present a detailed analysis of time-and energy-dependent synchrotron polarization signatures in a shock-in-jet model for gamma-ray blazars. Our calculations employ a full three-dimensional radiation transfer code, assuming a helical magnetic field throughout the jet. The code considers synchrotron emission from an ordered magnetic field, and takes into account all light-travel-time and other relevant geometric effects, while the relevant synchrotron self-Compton and external Compton effects are handled with the two-dimensional Monte-Carlo/Fokker-Planck (MCFP) code. We consider several possible mechanisms through which a relativistic shock propagating through the jet may affect the jet plasma to produce a synchrotron and high-energy flare. Most plausibly, the shock is expected to lead to a compression of the magnetic field, increasing the toroidal field component and thereby changing the direction of the magnetic field in the region affected by the shock. We find that such a scenario leads to correlated synchrotron + synchrotron-self-Compton flaring, associated with substantial variability in the synchrotron polarization percentage and position angle. Most importantly, this scenario naturally explains large polarization angle rotations by greater than or similar to 180 degrees, as observed in connection with gamma-ray flares in several blazars, without the need for bent or helical jet trajectories or other nonaxisymmetric jet features.}, language = {en} } @article{DeBeckerdelValleRomeroetal.2017, author = {De Becker, M. and del Valle, Maria Victoria and Romero, G. E. and Peri, C. S. and Benaglia, P.}, title = {X- ray study of bow shocks in runaway stars}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {471}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/stx1826}, pages = {4452 -- 4464}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Massive runaway stars produce bow shocks through the interaction of their winds with the interstellar medium, with the prospect for particle acceleration by the shocks. These objects are consequently candidates for non-thermal emission. Our aim is to investigate the X-ray emission from these sources. We observed with XMM-Newton a sample of five bow shock runaways, which constitutes a significant improvement of the sample of bow shock runaways studied in X-rays so far. A careful analysis of the data did not reveal any X-ray emission related to the bow shocks. However, X-ray emission from the stars is detected, in agreement with the expected thermal emission from stellar winds. On the basis of background measurements we derive conservative upper limits between 0.3 and 10 keV on the bow shocks emission. Using a simple radiation model, these limits together with radio upper limits allow us to constrain some of the main physical quantities involved in the non-thermal emission processes, such as the magnetic field strength and the amount of incident infrared photons. The reasons likely responsible for the non-detection of non-thermal radiation are discussed. Finally, using energy budget arguments, we investigate the detectability of inverse Compton X-rays in a more extended sample of catalogued runaway star bow shocks. From our analysis we conclude that a clear identification of non-thermal X-rays from massive runaway bow shocks requires one order of magnitude (or higher) sensitivity improvement with respect to present observatories.}, language = {en} } @article{VieyroRomeroBoschRamonetal.2017, author = {Vieyro, Florencia L. and Romero, Gustavo Esteban and Bosch-Ramon, Valentin and Marcote, Benito and del Valle, Maria Victoria}, title = {A model for the repeating FRB 121102 in the AGN scenario}, series = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, volume = {602}, journal = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, address = {Les Ulis}, issn = {1432-0746}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201730556}, pages = {7}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are transient sources of unknown origin. Recent radio and optical observations have provided strong evidence for an extragalactic origin of the phenomenon and the precise localization of the repeating FRB 121102. Observations using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) have revealed the existence of a continuum non-thermal radio source consistent with the location of the bursts in a dwarf galaxy. All these new data rule out several models that were previously proposed, and impose stringent constraints to new models. Aims. We aim to model FRB 121102 in light of the new observational results in the active galactic nucleus (AGN) scenario. Methods. We propose a model for repeating FRBs in which a non-steady relativistic e(+)-beam, accelerated by an impulsive magneto-hydrodynamic driven mechanism, interacts with a cloud at the centre of a star-forming dwarf galaxy. The interaction generates regions of high electrostatic field called cavitons in the plasma cloud. Turbulence is also produced in the beam. These processes, plus particle isotropization, the interaction scale, and light retardation effects, provide the necessary ingredients for short-lived, bright coherent radiation bursts. Results. The mechanism studied in this work explains the general properties of FRB 121102, and may also be applied to other repetitive FRBs. Conclusions. Coherent emission from electrons and positrons accelerated in cavitons provides a plausible explanation of FRBs.}, language = {en} }