MAXI and GLAST Studies of Jets in Active Galaxies

TL;DR

This paper discusses how simultaneous observations from Fermi/GLAST and MAXI can improve understanding of jet structures and emission regions in blazars by analyzing their variability across gamma-ray and X-ray bands.

Contribution

It introduces the potential of joint gamma-ray and X-ray monitoring to study the detailed structure and emission processes of blazar jets.

Findings

Enhanced sampling of blazar variability with GLAST and MAXI.

Insights into the location of emission regions relative to the black hole.

Improved understanding of jet-disk coupling in active galaxies.

Abstract

The recent launch of Fermi / GLAST - coinciding with the MAXI workshop - opens a new era for studies of jet-dominated active galaxies, known as blazars. While the emission processes operating in various spectral bands in blazars are reasonably well understood, the knowledge of the details of the structure of the jet, location of the dissipation region with respect to the accreting black hole, and coupling of the jet to the accretion process are known only at a rudimentary level. Blazars are variable, and this provides an opportunity to use the variability in various bands - and in particular, the relationship of respective time series to each other - to explore the relative location of regions responsible for emission in the respective bands. Observationally, this requires well-sampled time series in as many spectral bands as possible. To this end, with its all-sky, sensitive monitoring capability, the recently launched GLAST, and MAXI, to be deployed in 2009, are the most promising instruments bound to provide good sampling in respectively the energetic gamma-ray, and the soft X-ray band. This paper highlights the inferences regarding blazar jets that can be gleaned from such joint observations.