Gamma-ray emitting radio galaxies: Seyfert core or jet emission?
Abstract
A number of radio galaxies has been detected by Fermi/LAT in the gamma-ray domain. In some cases, like Cen A and M87, these objects have been seen even in the TeV domain by Cherenkov telescopes. Whereas the gamma-ray emission is likely to be connected with the non-thermal jet emission, dominating also the radio band, the situation is less clear at hard X-rays. While the smoothly curved continuum emission and the overall spectral energy distribution indicate a non-thermal emission, other features such as the iron line emission and the low variability appear to be rather of Seyfert type, i.e. created in the accretion disk around the central black hole. We investigate several prominent cases, such as M87, 3C 111, and Cen A, using combined X-ray and gamma-ray data in order to constrain the possible contributions of jet and accretion disk to the overall spectral energy distribution in radio galaxies. A picture emerges in which about half of the hard X-ray flux results from non-thermal jet emission, while the other half is generated in thermal inverse Compton processes close to the accretion disk.
- Publication:
-
39th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012cosp...39..118B