Research Projects

Galaxies contain super-massive black holes (sMBH) at their center, which accrete mass at a high rate, making the nuclear region of these galaxies very bright. These AGNs, such as blazars, have a prominent jet pointing close to our line of sight, amplifying emission by an order of magnitude or more. Jets are present in other astronomical systems, such as X-ray binaries, supernova remnants, and star-forming regions. However, the physics of jets, including their formation, stability, structure, and emission mechanisms, are not well understood. This project aims to enhance and improve our existing model of time variable multi-wavelength non-thermal emission from blazar jets to compare with data accumulated over the last two decades by various space and ground-based telescopes. The project will address three specific issues: identifying the mode(s) of connection between the disk and jet, how introducing inhomogeneity in the jet, and constraining the location of GeV emission by comparing the model and observed ratio of energy dissipation at the GeV and optical outbursts, and how these results are affected by the exact geometry of the broad line region and torus.