Active galactic nuclei at gamma-ray energies

Active Galactic Nuclei can be copious extragalactic emitters of MeV–GeV–TeV γ rays, a phenomenon linked to the presence of relativistic jets powered by a super-massive black hole in the center of the host galaxy. Most of γ-ray emitting active galactic nuclei, with more than 1500 known at GeV energies, and more than 60 at TeV energies, are called “blazars”. The standard blazar paradigm features a jet of relativistic magnetized plasma ejected from the neighborhood of a spinning and accreting super-massive black hole, close to the observer direction. Two classes of blazars are distinguished from observations: the flat-spectrum radio-quasar class (FSRQ) is characterized by strong external radiation fields, emission of broad optical lines, and dust tori. The BL Lac class (from the name of one of its members, BL Lacertae) corresponds to weaker advection-dominated flows with γ-ray spectra dominated by the inverse Compton effect on synchrotron photons. This paradigm has been very successful for modeling the broadband spectral energy distributions of blazars. However, many fundamental issues remain, including the role of hadronic processes and the rapid variability of a few FSRQs and several BL Lac objects whose synchrotron spectrum peaks at UV or X-ray frequencies. A class of γ-ray-emitting radio galaxies, which are thought to be the misaligned counterparts of blazars, has emerged from the results of the Fermi-Large Area Telescope and of ground-based Cherenkov telescopes. Soft γ-ray emission has been detected from a few nearby Seyfert galaxies, though it is not clear whether those γ rays originate from the nucleus. Blazars and their misaligned counterparts make up most of the ≳100 MeV extragalactic γ-ray background (EGB), and are suspected of being the sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. The future “Cherenkov Telescope Array”, in synergy with the Fermi-Large Area Telescope and a wide range of telescopes in space and on the ground, will write the next chapter of blazar physics.