Non-Thermal emissions from shocked shells driven by powerful AGN jets

TL;DR

This paper investigates non-thermal emissions from shocked shells driven by AGN jets, predicting gamma-ray detectability depending on source size and luminosity, with implications for observations by Fermi and Cherenkov telescopes.

Contribution

It introduces a model for non-thermal emissions in AGN jet-driven shells, highlighting the dominance of inverse Compton processes in compact sources and providing observational predictions.

Findings

Inverse Compton emission dominates in compact sources (<30 kpc).

Synchrotron radiation becomes more significant in larger sources.

Gamma-ray emissions from powerful sources are detectable by current telescopes.

Abstract

We explore the emissions by accelerated electrons in shocked shells driven by jets in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Focusing on powerful sources which host luminous quasars, the synchrotron radiation and inverse Compton (IC) scattering of various photons that are mainly produced in the core are considered as radiation processes. We show that the radiative output is dominated by the IC emission for compact sources (< 30kpc), whereas the synchrotron radiation is more important for larger sources. It is predicted that, for powerful sources ($L_j \sim 10^{47} ergs s^{-1}$), GeV-TeV gamma-rays produced via the IC emissions can be detected by the Fermi satellite and modern Cherenkov telescopes such as MAGIC, HESS and VERITAS if the source is compact.