Review
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Radio Galaxies - The TeV Challenge
Version 1
: Received: 1 November 2018 / Approved: 2 November 2018 / Online: 2 November 2018 (07:07:11 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Rani, B. Radio Galaxies—The TeV Challenge. Galaxies 2019, 7, 23. Rani, B. Radio Galaxies—The TeV Challenge. Galaxies 2019, 7, 23.
Abstract
Over the past decade, our knowledge of the $\gamma$-ray sky has been revolutionized by ground- and space-based observatories by detecting photons up to several hundreds of tera-electron volt (TeV) energies. A major population of the $\gamma$-ray bright objects are active galactic nuclei (AGN) with their relativistic jets pointed along our line-of-sight. Gamma-ray emission is also detected from nearby mis-aligned AGN such as radio galaxies. While the TeV-detected radio galaxies ($TeVRad$) only form a small fraction of the $\gamma$-ray detected AGN, their multi-wavelength study offers a unique opportunity to probe and pinpoint the high-energy emission processes and sites. Even in the absence of substantial Doppler beaming $TeVRad$ are extremely bright objects in the TeV sky (luminosities detected up to $10^{45}~erg~s^{-1}$), and exhibit flux variations on timescales shorter than the event-horizon scales (flux doubling timescale less than 5 minutes). Thanks to the recent advancement in the imaging capabilities of high-resolution radio interferometry (millimeter very long baseline interferometry, mm-VLBI), one can probe the scales down to less than 10 gravitational radii in $TeVRad$, making it possible not only to test jet launching models but also to pinpoint the high-energy emission sites and to unravel the emission mechanisms. This review provides an overview of the high-energy observations of $TeVRad$ with a focus on the emitting sites and radiation processes. Some recent approaches in simulations are also sketched. Observations by the near-future facilities like Cherenkov Telescope Array, short millimeter-VLBI, and high-energy polarimetry instruments will be crucial for discriminating the competing high-energy emission models.
Keywords
active galactic nuclei; radio galaxies; gamma-rays; jets
Subject
Physical Sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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