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AGN at very high energies: Cosmic accelerators and probes of space-time

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Abstract

During the last decade, very high energy astrophysics emerged as a new branch of astronomy with major discoveries achieved by the present ground-based gamma-ray Cherenkov telescopes. The sample of cosmic sources firmly detected at very high energy (VHE) now exceeds two hundred objects, including active galactic nuclei (AGN), pulsar wind nebulae, and several other types of sources of which a significant number are unidentified ones. The scientific return from recent VHE data is particularly interesting for AGN science, shedding new light on particle acceleration and emission processes around supermassive black holes, and probing the intergalactic space by the analysis of VHE photons propagating from bright remote sources to the Earth. The perspectives of this research field are promising with new generation VHE instruments such as CTA, a project of open observatory at extreme energies at the horizon 2023, allowing a deep analysis of the sky in the highest part of the electromagnetic spectrum, from 20 GeV to 300 TeV.

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Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the organizors of the AAPCOS meeting in Kolkata and the HESS and CTA collaborations, as well as support from the funding agencies listed at the websites https://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/hfm/HESS/ and http://www.cta-observatory.org/.

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  1. LUTH, CNRS, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, Place J. Janssen, 92195, Meudon, France

    Hélène Sol

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  1. Hélène Sol
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Correspondence to Hélène Sol.

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Sol, H. AGN at very high energies: Cosmic accelerators and probes of space-time. J Astrophys Astron 39, 52 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12036-018-9547-0

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