Radiation from relativistic blast waves in quasars and active galactic nuclei

An analysis is presented of the synchrotron and inverse Compton radiation that would be observed from behind a strong, relativistic, spherical shock propagating outwards through an ionized, magnetized medium. It is shown that, under a wide variety of conditions, a large fraction of the total dynamical energy can be dissipated in this manner. Details of the observed spectrum and its variation with time are computed for a selection of simple assumptions about the nature of the initial explosion, the ambient external medium and the relativistic particle spectrum. It is proposed that the rapidly variable, non-thermal emission observed from many types of active galactic nucleus originate in this manner, thus avoiding the well-known Compton problem. Illustrative applications of the analysis are made to 3C 120, CTA 102 (in which the low-frequency variability can only be explained if the surrounding medium is inhomogeneous), AO 0235 + 164 and Centaurus A.

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