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New Astronomy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/newastrev

Active galactic nuclei horizons from the gamma-ray perspective

Andrew M. Taylor
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 31 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2, Ireland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Recent results in the field of high energy active galactic nuclei (AGN) astrophysics, benefiting from im-
Accepted 7 June 2017 provements to gamma-ray instruments and observational strategies, have revealed a surprising wealth of
Available online xxx
unexpected phenomena. These developments have been brought about both through observational efforts
MSC: to discover new very high energy gamma-ray emitters, as well as from further in-depth observations of
00-01 previously detected and well studied objects. I here focus specifically on the discovery of repeated tempo-
99-00 ral structures observed in AGN lightcurves, and new hard spectral components within the spectral energy
distributions of other AGN systems. The challenges that these new features place on the modeling of the
Keywords: sources are highlighted, along with some reflections on what these results tell us about the underlying
Gamma-ray astronomy
nature of the emission processes at play.
Active galactic nuclei
New frontiers © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. High redshift AGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Gravitationally lensed AGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4. AGN quasi-periodicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. Fast variability of FSRQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. New hardening features at VHE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6.1. Mrk 501 results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6.2. Centaurus A results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7. Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1. Introduction beamed blazars of both BL Lac and flat spectrum radio quasar
(FSRQ) type, the most numerously observed AGN subclass at VHE,
The past several decades have seen extragalactic high energy to their dimmer weakly beamed counterparts, radio galaxies.
γ -ray astronomy develop from an emerging discipline into a fully The radio galaxy members of the AGN family observed at VHE,
fledged research field. Starting in the 1990s with the first AGN dis- although much dimmer, offer the potential to provide direct spatial
coveries of Mrk 421 and Mrk 501 (Punch et al., 1992; Quinn et al., information about their emission site due to their locality. Contrary
1996), the field now boasts of more than 60 AGN having been de- and perhaps complementary to this, the jet-beamed blazar family
tected at very high energies (VHE) by ground-based gamma-ray members, are observed as point-like sources. For these, informa-
instruments 1 . Following these observational achievements, a con- tion about the spatial extent of the emission site may instead be
siderable array of different AGN subclasses, believed to represent encoded into the temporal structure of the flux that they emit. In-
various manifestations of a single (few) AGN type(s) (Urry and deed, the most challenging/enlightening results from observations
Padovani, 1995), are now identified. These range from the bright of such temporal structure information, come from the most in-
tense outbursts (such as that of PKS 2155-304 (The HESS collabo-
ration, 2007) in 2006). Such extreme bright episodic emission has
E-mail address: taylora@cp.dias.ie lead to tight constraints being placed upon the size of the emission
1
See http://tevcat.uchicago.edu for an up-to-date list. region and the jet Doppler factor.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2017.06.001
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Please cite this article as: A.M. Taylor, Active galactic nuclei horizons from the gamma-ray perspective, New Astronomy Reviews (2017),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2017.06.001
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2 A.M. Taylor / New Astronomy Reviews 000 (2017) 1–10
At present, three principal stereoscopic Cherenkov telescope in-
struments are currently in operation, H.E.S.S. based in Namibia,
MAGIC based on the Spanish island of La Palma, and VERI-
TAS based in Arizona in the USA. These sensitive stereoscopic
Cherenkov telescope instruments collectively cover both the north-
ern and southern hemisphere regions of the sky. Together, the
achievements of these these instruments have brought about the
present flourishing status of the field. Furthermore, an upgrade of
each of them carried out around 2012, has resulted in significant
improvements in their sensitivities, and a lowering of their thresh-
old energies (Holler et al., 2016; D. B. Kieda for the VERITAS Col-
laboration, 2014; Sitarek et al., 2016).
Recent years have also seen the arrival of new monitoring
instruments, with FACT (The FACT collaboration, 2015), and the
now completed HAWC-300 (Pretz and for the HAWC Collaboration,
2016), collectively able to provide wide field of view and sensitive
effective AGN monitoring. The complementarity provided by the
monitoring and follow-ups through both the broad sky coverage,
and the in-depth low energy threshold targeted observations, make
promising the prospects for further growth in the coming years.
Such collaborative efforts allow the maximum to be obtained from
the present generation of instruments before the arrival of the next
generation CTA north and south instruments (Actis et al., 2011).
In the following, several of the key recent observational de-
velopments in AGN gamma-ray astrophysics will be covered. In
Section 2 the highest redshift AGN observed to-date will be fo-
cused on. Following this, in Section 3 the recently discovered first
gamma-ray lensed AGN system will be discussed. In Section 4 the
recent evidence for quasi-periodicity in a gamma-ray bright AGN
will be highlighted. In Section 5, fast variability in FRSQ systems
will be addressed. Lastly, in Section 6 the discovery of new unex-
pected spectral hardening features in local AGN will be covered.
The conclusions to this discourse will be provided in Section 7.
2. High redshift AGN
At VHE, the propagation of photons is attenuated by the ex-
tragalactic background light (EBL) through pair production interac-
tions. The strong energy dependence of this process, brought about
by the required threshold energy for pair production, results in ex-
tragalactic space becoming optically thick τ > 2 at redshift z = 0.5
(2) at for photon energies of 30 0 GeV (10 0 GeV) (Franceschini
et al., 2008). It is therefore apparent that the threshold energy for
an air Cherenkov telescope (ACT) instrument, has significant im-
plications on the size of the Universe open to it for extragalactic
observations.
The recent lowering of the threshold energy of ACTs to energies
below 100 GeV, following upgrades back in 2012, has opened up
the high redshift window to the Universe. Prior to these upgrades,
the highest redshift AGN observed by ACTs had been 3C 279 (The
MAGIC collaboration, 2008) (z =0.54), KUV 00311-1938 (Becherini
et al., 2012) (z > 0.51) and PKS 1424+240 (Acciari et al., 2010)
(z =0.60). Furthermore, with bright AGN, particularly FSRQ, whose
outbursts are frequently brightest down at these energies, the
opening up of the low energy domain allows for a rich ensemble
of phenomena to be probed with the potential of high statistic re-
sults for bright outbursts.
Direct proof that access to the high redshift Universe has indeed
been achieved through these upgrades of the instruments comes
from the recent successful detection, both by MAGIC and VERITAS,
of a flaring outburst from the FSRQ PKS 1441+25 in April 2015
(The VERITAS collaboration, 2015; The MAGIC collaboration, 2015).
This AGN sits at a redshift of 0.94 (Shaw et al., 2012), making it
the highest redshift VHE blazar detected to date. The spectral en-
ergy distributions (SED) obtained by the observations from these
instruments, which both achieved threshold energies down well
Please cite this article as: A.M. Taylor, Active galactic nuclei horizons from the gamma-ray perspective, New Astronomy Reviews (2017),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2017.06.001
[m5G;June 21, 2017;11:10]
below 100 GeV, are both shown in Fig. 1. In this figure, the spec-
tral values of both the observed, and EBL deabsorbed points are
shown. Note the reference EBL model in the two plots are different,
with the VERITAS SED adopting the model (Gilmore et al., 2012)
and the MAGIC SED adopting the model (Domínguez et al., 2011).
A comparison of the two observational result sets show striking
agreement, validating both the detection and the robustness of the
spectrum obtained by the two independent experiments.
Although remarkable simply for its high redshift value, the de-
tection of this FSRQ at VHE brings with it additional new in-
formation. Perhaps one of the most striking such results, how-
ever, actually comes from what is not seen. The continuation
of the spectral slope in the derived SED, particularly apparent
through the comparison of the Fermi-LAT and deabsorbed VHE
spectrum, amounts to a lack of evidence of internal absorption
being present in the intrinsic spectrum output by the source. In
turn, this result can be used to place strong constraints on the
position of the emission site with respect to the broad line re-
gion location (Tavecchio and Ghisellini, 2012). With gamma-ray
emission up to 200 GeV detected from this source, the emis-
sion site is found to  be constrained1to sit at a distance be-
/2
yond rBLR ≈ 1017 cm Ldisk /1045 ergs−1 (Ghisellini and Tavec-
chio, 2009), where Ldisk is the thermal luminosity of the accretion
disk which is spectrally dominated by the output in the optical en-
ergy range. This point will be returned to later in Section 5.
The detection of this high redshift AGN, out at a redshift of
0.94, carries other implications related to the subsequent tran-
parency of space outside the source in the extragalactic environ-
ment, and the corresponding EBL constraint. The rule-of-thumb is
that a VHE photon of energy Eγ , emitted by a source at redshift
z, attenuates off background photon of wavelength λ such that,
(Eγ /TeV )/(1 + z )2 ≈ (λ/μm ). Following this guideline, the detec-
tion of VHE < 100 GeV flux from a source at redshift z ≈ 1
predominantly provides EBL information for the small wavelength
component (∼ 0.6 μm), as shown in left-hand panel of Fig. 2. Un-
der the assumption that the intrinsic spectral shape follows a sim-
ple mathematical functional form, the constraints on the normali-
sation of a fiducial reference model, (Domínguez et al., 2011), are
shown in the right-hand panel of Fig. 2.
These high redshift AGN observations clearly demonstrate the
successful reduction in energy threshold of both MAGIC and VER-
ITAS instruments. In a similar manner, the H.E.S.S. collaboration
demonstrated the successful reduction of the H.E.S.S.-II energy
threshold through the detection of the FSRQ 3C 279, at a redshift
of z ≈ 0.54, in a flaring state back in 2015 (Cerruti et al., 2017).
The implications of these observations, which achieved an energy
threshold of ∼ 66 GeV, will be discussed further in Section 5. This
collective reduction in the energy threshold of the different ACT
instruments, therefore, has quickly borne fruit.
3. Gravitationally lensed AGN
The recent upgrades of the stereoscopic ACT instruments which
have opened up the high redshift window, have led to the
discovery of an ensemble of new unexpected phenomena. One
prime example is the detection of the first VHE gamma-ray grav-
itationally lensed system, B0218+357 (The MAGIC collaboration,
2015). Within this system, the source AGN sits at a redshift of
∼ 0.94 (Cohen et al., 2003), and the lens at a redshift of z ≈
0.68 (Browne et al., 1993).
This system was detected several years ago at GeV gamma-ray
energies by the Fermi-LAT satellite (The Fermi collaboration, 2014).
Since then, the lensed AGN has exhibited several GeV bright flaring
episodes, along with the subsequent detection of their correspond-
ing delayed counterparts (see top-panel of Fig. 3). The delay times
between these flares and their counterparts have been repeatedly
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A.M. Taylor / New Astronomy Reviews 000 (2017) 1–10 3

Fig. 1. The spectral energy distribution of PKS 1441+25, taken from (The VERITAS collaboration, 2015) and (The MAGIC collaboration, 2015).

Fig. 2. Left-panel: the EBL component constrained by the observations of PKS 1441+25, taken from (The VERITAS collaboration, 2015). Right-panel: the constraint on the
normalisation of a fiducial EBL model (Domínguez et al., 2011) for a variety of functional forms for the intrinsic spectra, (The MAGIC collaboration, 2015).

Fig. 3. Top-panel: lightcurves at GeV energies of 3 flares and delayed counterparts from the lensed system containing B0218+357. The lower panel shows the flux ratio
between the flare and delayed emission. This figure has been taken from (The Fermi collaboration, 2014). Bottom-panel: a schematic describing the distortion of the delayed
flare due to the addition of microlensing effects.

Please cite this article as: A.M. Taylor, Active galactic nuclei horizons from the gamma-ray perspective, New Astronomy Reviews (2017),
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4 A.M. Taylor / New Astronomy Reviews 000 (2017) 1–10
measured, with a value of ∼ 11.5 ± 0.3 days being obtained. In-
terestingly, such a delay time may be somewhat longer than that
measured at radio energies, for which a delay time of ∼ 10.5 ±
0.4 days has been obtained (Biggs et al., 1999). However, the status
of any discrepancy, and the possibility that the radio and gamma-
ray emission sites are not colocated, is presently a topic hotly de-
bated (The Fermi collaboration, 2014).
Following naive geometrical arguments, the calculation of the
delay times follows the form,
L 2007a), and outburst (Abramowski et al., 2015) episodes. A low-
δt ≈ (δθ )2
c
where L is the distance to the lensing object, and θ describes the
geometrical angular deflection of the image. By describing the de-
lay times in this form, at least qualitatively, highlights the abil-
ity to measure the distance to objects using collectively the an-
gular and delay time information. Indeed, measurements from the
lensed system, with B0218+357 as the source, have led to the in-
ference of Hubble constant values of H0 = 61 ± 7 km s−1 Mpc (York
et al., 2005). Interestingly, such a value is noted to sit somewhat
below the preferred range inferred from the Hubble space tele-
scope measurements (Freedman et al., 2001; Riess et al., 2009;
2011; 2016). It is worth highlighting, however, that tensions be-
tween these Hubble space telescope measurements and the CMB
inferred value from the recent Planck mission (Planck Collabora-
tion et al., 2016), indicate a broader lack of consensus. This sug-
gests that the issue of the Hubble constant value remains open,
and that new insights from independent avenues such as gravita-
tional lensing are of considerable scientific merit.
The effects due to substructure within the lens, once also fac-
tored into account, alters the simple lensing picture put forward.
A depiction of these effects is provided in the bottom-panel of
Fig. 3 2 The addition of such micro-lensing effects, introduced by
the lensing galaxy’s individual stars, leads to a distortion factor (la-
beled μ in bottom panel of Fig. 3) in the amplitude of the delayed
emission. Investigations into historic outbursts of B0218+357, have
revealed evidence for the time variation of this distortion factor,
allowing an estimation of the caustic crossing time introduced by
movement of the stars (Vovk and Neronov, 2016). If this interpreta-
tion is correct, the measurement of the distortion factor provides a
constraint on the emission region size, with values on the order of
the Schwarzschild radius being obtained. This result demonstrates
the remarkable potential such a lensed system offers, for accurately
locating the VHE emission site, orders of magnitudes beyond that
typically considered achievable for a z = 1 AGN using present in-
struments.
4. AGN quasi-periodicity
The temporal aspects of AGN activity remains poorly under-
stood for even the brightest and most studied objects to date. This
situation, in part, has been driven by both limitations in instru-
mentation and the duration/incompleteness of observational tem-
poral coverage. Within the extragalactic VHE gamma-ray commu-
nity, predictability within the time domain is an unfamiliar charac-
teristic. However, in parallel with the gravitationally lensed system
discussed previously, such new characteristics are now starting re-
vealing themselves.
A growing body of evidence now exists that some level of pre-
dictability is present in the multi-wavelength lightcurves following
long-term observations of the blazar PG 1553+113. Since searches
for such periodicity carry potential shortfalls (Vaughan et al., 2016),
a considerable threshold of robustness for the presence of any sig-
nature is demanded. Such a threshold now appears to be reached
2
provided via private communication by I. Vovk
Please cite this article as: A.M. Taylor, Active galactic nuclei horizons from the gamma-ray perspective, New Astronomy Reviews (2017),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2017.06.001
[m5G;June 21, 2017;11:10]
by across-the-board lightcurves from radio, optical, X-ray through
to gamma-rays (The Fermi collaboration, 2015), such that the exis-
tence of periodicity within its lightcurve now appears robust. From
these observations, a periodicity timescale of ∼ 2 years has been
determined. Furthermore, comparing the phases of these different
wavelength components, there are preliminary signs that the radio
emission is mildly delayed relative to the other components.
At VHE, PG 1553+113 was detected previously during relatively
quiescent (The HESS collaboration, 2006; The MAGIC collaboration,
(1) ering of the threshold energy of ACT instruments in combination
with its soft spectral index at energies of ∼ 200 GeV resulted in its
becoming bright at lower energies close to the new post 2012 up-
grade energy threshold. These improvements have now allowed for
its regular monitoring at VHE, which have resulted in evidence for
quasi-periodicity in the VHE flux also being discovered (Prandini
et al., 2016).
Although the driver causing this periodic variability behaviour
remains unclear, (Rieger, 2004), orbital motion, jet precession, and
an internally rotating jet flow have all been discussed as valid can-
didates. With each of these processes predicting a distinct variabil-
ity time-scale, the time period for the oscillations offers itself as
a natural discriminatory variable between these possibilities. With
PG 1553+113 indicating a quasi-perdiodic time-scale of ∼ 2 yrs
(The Fermi collaboration, 2015), the favoured driver most natu-
rally able to account for such a period is the precession of the jet.
Such an explanation leaves the cause for the jet precession unan-
swered. Any discussion on this point is therefore speculation. How-
ever, one exciting possibility is that the central compact massive
object actually consists of a binary pair of supermassive blackholes.
Such a possibility relies on a relatively high abundance of binary
supermassive blackhole systems, whose value is presently largely
unknown. Although the existence of such systems is naturally
expected from hierarchical structure formation (Begelman et al.,
1980), their ubiquitousness remains unclear, with few spatially re-
solved confirmations of similar such systems possessing a com-
parable level of blackhole separation (eg. J0402+379 (Rodriguez
et al., 2006)). The abundance of these systems, however, will be
probed in the future by space-based gravitational wave detectors
such as LISA (Hughes, 2002), through its sensitivity to their merger
rates. Thus, indirectly, gravitational wave instruments may be able
to shed new light on the nature of this quasi-periodic AGN activity.
5. Fast variability of FSRQ
Despite the two AGN focused upon in the previous sections
(B0218+357 and PG 1553+113) demonstrating temporally recur-
ring structures in their brightness, such phenomena are far from
usual for blazars at VHE. Indeed, the bulk of blazar activity shows
more complex time domain structure, exhibiting variability on
all time scales down to the smallest temporal scales that can
presently be probed (H. E. S. S. Collaboration et al., 2017; The
MAGIC collaboration, 2007b) (i.e. the smallest temporal variability
time-scale is limited solely by current instrument sensitivities).
Information about the spatial size of the emission site, from
where the outburst originates, is obtained from the minimum tem-
poral variability time-scale. One of the most constraining such re-
sults to date has come from the flares of PKS 2155-304 (The HESS
collaboration, 2007). Following a major outburst back in 2006 from
this BL Lac type blazar, the constraint on the size of emission site
from the ∼ minute scale variability observed set the constraint
R/δ < 5 × 1012 cm (0.3 A.U.), where δ describes the Doppler fac-
tor of the emitter. As means of a comparison, the Schwarzschild
radius for this system is estimated to be RSchwarz. = 2GMBH /c2 =
5 × 1014 cm (30 A.U.), where MBH refers to the blackhole mass,
which for PKS 2155-304 is estimated to be 1 − 2 × 109 M (The
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Fig. 4. Left-panel: Preliminary H.E.S.S. and Fermi-LAT EBL-deabsorbed spectral data points of PKS 1510-089 in three different time intervals. The solid line shows an unab-
sorbed power-law extrapolation of a fit to the Fermi-LAT data into the VHE range. The dashed line shows an unabsorbed log-parabola fit to the Fermi-LAT data into the VHE
range. Right-panel: estimation of the absorption of gamma-rays by the broad line region for emission from different distances from the blackhole. Both figures have been
taken from (Zacharias et al., 2017).
HESS collaboration, 2007). Note, however, that considerable uncer-
tainty exists on the blackhole mass value, and that the actual value
could be as much as a factor of 10 smaller than this (Rieger and
Volpe, 2010).
A reduction in the threshold energy of ACTs, now allows sim-
ilar such constraints to be provided for flaring FSRQs. Although
bright, the emission from these AGN typically peaks at lower ener-
gies than HBL blazars. Indeed, the brightest AGN outburst observed
down at GeV energies are from the FSRQs 3C 454 and 3C 279
(Romoli et al., 2017), whose SED emission peaks at an energy of
tens of GeV.
For the FSRQ subset of blazars, other information about the
emission site is also released during flaring episodes. For these ob-
jects, intense thermal radiation fields produced by the broad line
region (BLR) are observed to be present, at distances close to or
just beyond its accretion disk. Should the emission site sit within
this intense radiation field radius, the VHE produced must tra-
verse this intense radiation field, allowing for gamma-gamma ab-
sorption to occur. Estimates of the intensity of the radiation field
within the BLR suggest that significant VHE gamma-ray attenua-
tion should occur if their emission site sits at radii within this re-
gion (Tavecchio and Ghisellini, 2012). The spectrum emitted during
flaring outbursts by FSRQs, therefore, provides additional informa-
tion about the location of the central emitter, complimentary to
the probe provided in the temporal structure of the emission.
In recent years, both PKS 1510-089 and 3C 279 have been
observed to undergo bright outburst episodes. During these out-
bursts, unexpectedly short time-scale variability have been re-
vealed for both objects. Specifically, for PKS 1510-089, ∼ tens of
minutes time-scale structure has been found in the HE lightcurve
(Foschini et al., 2013). Likewise, for 3C 279, ∼ minute time-scale
structure in the HE lightcurves was discovered (The Fermi collab-
oration, 2016). Such short/extremely short temporal structure has
only been seen previously in BL Lac type blazar objects.
Spectrally, observations by Cherenkov telescopes during such
outbursts provide further key insights. Preliminary such spectral
results have been recently provided for both objects during flares
observed in 2015 (Zacharias et al., 2017; Cerruti et al., 2017). To-
gether, both the lack of internal absorption features in the flaring
FSRQ spectra, and the short variability time-scales observed dur-
ing the flare, make for rather challenging constraints. Evidence for
the lack of internal absorption present in the spectra obtained for
PKS 1510-089 is shown in left-hand panel of fig 4. On the one
hand, the lack of absorbtion signatures in the spectra place the
emission site outside the BLR. On the other, the short variability
time-scale demands that the size of the emission region is con-
Please cite this article as: A.M. Taylor, Active galactic nuclei horizons from the gamma-ray perspective, New Astronomy Reviews (2017),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2017.06.001
[m5G;June 21, 2017;11:10]
5
strained to scales significantly below the Schwarzschild radius for
a 5 × 108 M mass blackhole. Collectively, these results are sugges-
tive that compact emission sights exist external to the central ac-
creting objects. Furthermore, the growing abundance of such chal-
lenges for FSRQ (see similar such results of PKS 1222+216 (The
MAGIC collaboration, 2011)) suggest that this is a general challenge
that must be faced for this source class.
The brightness of the 2015 flare of the FSRQ 3C 279 within the
Fermi-LAT energy range, sets it as one of the brightest AGN out-
burst events recorded by the Fermi-LAT instrument. Such a level
of statistics allows for acute in-depth investigations into the un-
derlying spectral shape. Furthermore, with a redshift of ∼ 0.54
(Burbidge and Rosenberg, 1965), a negligible degree of EBL attenu-
ation of the spectrum is calculated to be expected within the part
of the Fermi-LAT energy band where the flux has been detected.
Such observations, therefore, give unique insight into a high qual-
ity unadulterated spectra intrinsic to the source.
In-depth modeling of the spectrum, with an unprecedented
level of statistics spanning a broad energy range, allows a rigorous
consideration of the functional form of the underlying spectrum
produced during the outburst. Motivated by both shock acceler-
ation (Zirakashvili and Aharonian, 2007) and stochastic accelera-
tion scenarios (Schlickeiser, 1985; Akharonian et al., 1986), a class
of electron spectra with four free parameters is considered, of the
form,
 
(Ee ) = (E0 )(Ee /E0 )−e exp −(Ee /Ec )βe . (2)
The subsequent gamma-ray spectrum produced by such a dis-
tribution of electrons through their electromagnetic energy-loss in-
teractions follows an analogous distribution of the form,
 −γ   βγ 
(Eγ ) = (E0 ) Eγ /E0 exp − Eγ /Ec . (3)
The relation between the corresponding electron and photon pa-
rameters in these distributions is dependent on the specifics of the
emission process at play (Fritz, 1989; Lefa et al., 2012). To exem-
plify this point, Inverse Compton emission in the Thomson regime
leads to the cutoff stretching parameters for the photons and elec-
trons being related by, βγ = βe /(βe + 2 ). The tentative constraint
on the photon curvature parameter, βγ = 0.36 ± 0.03 (see right-
hand plot in fig. 5), is therefore suggestive that a β e ≈ 1 (ie. simple
exponential) type cutoff exists in the underlying electron spectrum.
Related to the above constraint, it is also worth noting what the
detected spectra from such a bright flare did not reveal. A com-
parison of the multi-wavelength spectrum in both the Fermi-LAT
and H.E.S.S. energy bands, shown in the left-panel of Fig. 5, reveals
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6 A.M. Taylor / New Astronomy Reviews 000 (2017) 1–10
Fig. 5. Left-panel: a comparison of preliminary H.E.S.S. and contemporaneous Fermi-LAT spectral data points of 3C 279 made from a period during the giant outburst on
16th June 2015, along with historic MAGIC spectral data points of 3C 279 from 2008 (The MAGIC collaboration, 2008). This figure has been taken from (Cerruti et al., 2017).
Right-panel: a fit to the Fermi-LAT data points during the 2015 outburst, adopting an emission spectrum of the form described by eqn 3. This figure has been taken from
(Romoli et al., 2017).
no evidence for any spectral upturn feature. Indeed, an extrapola-
tion of the spectral slope from the highest data points within the
Fermi-LAT energy band appear to match on to the H.E.S.S. detected
spectral points. Such a result emphasises the remarkable lack of
evidence for internal absorption features in the bright spectra of
this FSRQ. A similar lack of evidence of such absorption features is
found in spectra of the flaring FSRQ PKS 1510-089, shown in Fig. 4.
6. New hardening features at VHE
6.1. Mrk 501 results
Although over two decades since its discovery as a VHE emit-
ter (Quinn et al., 1996), and one of the closest blazars available
to study, our understanding of the non-thermal emission from
Mrk 501 remains far from complete. Rapid growth in this un-
derstanding has been possible in recent times with the advent
of the Fermi-LAT era, able to provide considerably more uniform,
though less sensitive on short time-scales (Funk et al., 2013), cov-
erage than that obtained from ground-based ACTs, whose much
smaller field-of-views and limited observational periods constrain
the amount of time that may be dedicated to any single source.
A further improvement in the VHE coverage has been brought
about by the arrival of the now complete HAWC-300 array (Pretz
and for the HAWC Collaboration, 2016). Complementing this cov-
erage, FACT, a monitoring ACT, also regularly observes this AGN.
Indeed, it was from such monitoring by FACT that H.E.S.S. was
alerted to a giant outburst in 2014 whose flux level matched that
of the record level, observed by HEGRA back in 1997 (Djannati-Atai
et al., 1999). The obtained spectra both during the flare, and in the
quiescent state, are shown in the left-panel of Fig. 6. The shape of
the spectrum observed during the flare, once EBL absorption had
been accounted for, showed no signs a cutoff, continuing as a hard
spectrum up to the highest energy data point (∼ 20 TeV).
Perhaps most singular of all, however, has been the further
discovery of “challenging” spectral slopes, within the temporally
resolved spectra in the 10–300 GeV Fermi-LAT energy band (see
right-panel of fig 6 3 ) (Shukla et al., 2016). These have been found
to be present during some of the brightest flaring episodes in the
3
provided via private communication by A. Shukla
Please cite this article as: A.M. Taylor, Active galactic nuclei horizons from the gamma-ray perspective, New Astronomy Reviews (2017),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2017.06.001
[m5G;June 21, 2017;11:10]
past 8 years, during which Fermi-LAT coverage has been available.
Tentative evidence, following the large outburst caught by both
Fermi-LAT and VERITAS in 2009 (Abdo et al., 2011), had previously
been claimed to show such a feature (Neronov et al., 2012). How-
ever, the further mounting of evidence for this effect, seen in the
Fermi-LAT data within a larger observational time period, warrants
a further reflection on the implications of such peculiarly hard
spectral indices.
The renewed evidence for the existence of a hard spectral com-
ponent calls upon more involved scenarios in order to be able to
naturally produce such a feature within the sources. Presently, a
primary candidate for the generation of such an index are leading-
blob stochastic acceleration scenarios (Lefa et al., 2011), which
utilise the development of an ensemble of relativistic Maxwellian
distributions (Katarzyński et al., 2006). Alternatively, such a feature
could be developed outside the source zone through either the
production of electromagnetic cascades within weak extragalactic
magnetic fields (Abdo et al., 2011) or through absorption on radia-
tion fields local to the source (Aharonian et al., 2008). The required
consideration of less run-of-the-mill type scenarios highlight the
challenges that the presence of a hard spectral component within
the Mrk 501 SED during flaring outbursts place on the emission
site, whose presence appears wholly incompatible with conven-
tional one-zone emission scenarios.
6.2. Centaurus A results
One of the most local AGN, at a distance of only 3.8 Mpc (Harris
et al., 2010), which was only relatively recently discovered as a
VHE source (The HESS collaboration, 2009), Centaurus A continues
to reveal new aspects about itself. This nearby FR1 radio galaxy is
one of the few AGN at gamma-ray energies to also have morphol-
ogy information. Fermi-LAT observations of this AGN have revealed
that the gamma-ray emission is produced from both its core and
giant lobe regions (The Fermi collaboration, 2010). The underlying
nature of the acceleration process, and the spatial position of the
source of the high energy particles present within these regions,
however, presently remains less clear.
From the nuclear core gamma-ray emission region, located
within ࣠ 0.1° from the nucleus core itself, analysis of the emission
observed by Fermi-LAT continues to provide weak evidence for the
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A.M. Taylor / New Astronomy Reviews 000 (2017) 1–10 7

Fig. 6. Left-panel: the observed spectral data points of Mrk 501 above 300 GeV, from observations taken both before and during the extremely bright outburst in June 2014
(Cologna et al., 2016). Right-panel: (Above) a table noting three temporal regions in the long-term 10–300 GeV lightcurve of Mrk 501, measured by Fermi-LAT. (Below) the
10–300 GeV Fermi-LAT long-term lightcurve of Mrk 501 with an indication of the 3 regions noted in the table, each bounded by vertical green dashed lines. Analysis of the
spectra within these 3 regions indicate the presence of extremely hard spectral components. This is an altered figure from a version taken from (Shukla et al., 2016). (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 7. Left-panel: indications for the presence of a hard spectral component within the core (࣠ 0.1°) emission Centaurus A spectrum at GeV energies. This figure is a
modified version of that shown in (Brown et al., 2016). Right-panel: weak evidence (∼ 2.6σ ) for variability in the Fermi-LAT > 0.1 GeV lightcurve of Centaurus A between
2008 and 2015 in 45 day bins.

presence of flux variability (see right-panel of fig 7 4 ). Indeed, a
hint of such variability in the flux from the core emission, with
a ∼ 2σ evidence for departure from the hypothesis of a constant
flux level from 4 years of Fermi-LAT data, had previously been sug-
gested (Sahakyan et al., 2013). The revised estimate of this statis-
tical strength, after seven years of data, sits√at a level of ∼ 2.6σ .
If genuine, and a constant growth rate of σ / t holds, a robust 3σ
signal of variability can be expected from a 10 year data set.
Accompanying this accumulating evidence of variability in the
core emission’s gamma-ray flux, the Fermi-LAT data from this re-
gion now robustly further confirms the presence of a new hard
spectral component in Centaurus A’s core emission, with an on-
set energy of ∼ 3 GeV (see left-panel of fig. 7 5 ). It should be
noted, however, that the present level of statistics from the Fermi-
LAT core emission observations are insufficient for a statement to
be made on the level of variability associated with the new hard
spectral component. Such an aspect is particularly relevant since
a potential difference in variability of the new harder would lend
support to the idea that it originates from a separate cosmic ray
population (Brown et al., 2016).
Taking advantage of the spatially resolved lobes both at
radio and gamma-ray energies, evidence for spatial variation of
the spectral index across the giant lobes has also been looked
into (Sun et al., 2016). This work built further on earlier findings
(Yang et al., 2012), and revealed evidence for energy dependent

4 5
provided via private communication by N. Sahakyan provided via private communication by J. Graham

Please cite this article as: A.M. Taylor, Active galactic nuclei horizons from the gamma-ray perspective, New Astronomy Reviews (2017),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2017.06.001
JID: ASTREV
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8 A.M. Taylor / New Astronomy Reviews 000 (2017) 1–10
Fig. 8. Left-panel: A breakdown of Cen A’s giant radio lobe structures into 3 northern lobe and 3 southern lobe regions. Right-panel: A comparison of the energy spectra
within the 3 southern lobe regions labeled “S1”, “S2”, and “S3”. Both plots have been taken from (Sun et al., 2016).
differences in the lobe morphologies. In particular, observations
of the northern and southern lobes at radio, microwave and
gamma-ray energies have indicated that the gamma-ray emission
extends spatially beyond the emission region in both radio and
microwave bands.
Furthermore, morphological spectral differences across the
lobes have also been recently discovered. Due to the low gas densi-
ties in the lobes, the low energy (< GeV) gamma-ray spectral com-
ponent appear most likely of leptonic origin, produced through IC
interactions on the CMB by in situ accelerated electrons. Applying
a description of the underlying electron spectrum using expression
eqn 2, this gamma-ray emission was found to originate from elec-
trons within the cutoff energy range for all lobe regions bar the
southern most one (referred to “S1” in the left-panel of fig. 8).
This highlights the fact that the spectrum in this part of the lobe
is found to be markedly harder than the spectra in all the other
regions, providing no evidence for a cutoff. This result potentially
motivates the presence of strong (∼ 10 μG) magnetic fields at this
location, which would be considerably larger than that suggested
to be present in the other regions.
The appearance of a new hard spectral component at energies
above a GeV, and its corresponding spatial dependence, can po-
tentially provide a diagnostic of its origin. However, attempts to fit
the multi-wavelength spectrum in the regions across the lobes re-
veal challenges for both hadronic and leptonic models. On the one
hand, the lack of evidence of a π 0 bump at GeV energies is sug-
gestive against a hadronic origin of the sub-GeV component of the
spectrum. On the other, the emergence of a hard spectral compo-
nent can be difficult to reconcile under a leptonic origin only sce-
nario under a pure power-law model. Specifically, an interpretation
in which the new hard spectral component, which reveals itself at
GeV energies, relates to the changeover of target photons for IC
scattering from CMB to EBL photons, requires a spectral break or
cutoff to exist in the electron spectrum at an energy of tens of
GeV (Sun et al., 2016).
7. Conclusion
The present epoch in gamma-ray astrophysics is one of a matur-
ing field. Although an increase in the number of sources detected
Please cite this article as: A.M. Taylor, Active galactic nuclei horizons from the gamma-ray perspective, New Astronomy Reviews (2017),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.newar.2017.06.001
[m5G;June 21, 2017;11:10]
continues, there has been an evolution of focus in the observa-
tional frontier. Indeed, the research highlights covered in this re-
view demonstrate this trend. New source discoveries continue to
play an important role, primarily thanks to recent improvements
in the instrumentation which have lowered their energy threshold.
However, subsequent deeper observations of already detected ob-
jects are now playing an increasingly important part in leading the
field through the new insights provided.
Within the time domain results covered, the discovery of the
lensed AGN system, B0218+357, reveals an entirely new phe-
nomenon in VHE astrophysics. The further potential provided by
this system for probing both the nature of the lens itself, as well as
providing a natural magnifying glass for probing the emission re-
gion, is considerable. Moreover, this system provides a connection
to an even broader range of astrophysics, through the possibility
of probing the length scale to the lens, and subsequently providing
input on the Hubble constant value debate.
The discovery of quasi-periodicity in the emission of
PG 1553+113, provides an archetypal example of discoveries
brought about through deeper observations of already discov-
ered VHE emitters. Although previously observed to demonstrate
outburst activity, the recent realisation of an underlying regular
quasi-periodic structure in the gamma-ray emission is once again
entirely new to extragalactic VHE astrophysics. The possible impli-
cation that such cyclic behaviour results from the presence of a
binary supermassive blackhole system is an exciting one. Interest-
ingly, new information about such systems, whose abundance has
mostly been hypothesised until now, are set to be probed in the
near future by upcoming gravitational wave detectors such as LISA
(Hughes, 2002).
Beyond structure within the temporal domain, AGN variability
is a well known and familiar phenomena. Despite this, however,
the short-time variability results observed from recent FSRQ out-
bursts at VHE are challenging. The blazar 3C 279, which underwent
a giant outburst in June 2015, demonstrated minute-scale variabil-
ity at GeV energies. Such short-time variability at gamma-rays en-
ergies approaches the shortest level caught from the BL Lac PKS
2155-304. Since considerable internal absorption for FSRQ are ex-
pected should the emission zone be located close to the BLR, both
the compactness of the emission zone suggested by the short time-
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A.M. Taylor / New Astronomy Reviews 000 (2017) 1–10
scale structure, and the large distance from the BLR region, are col-
lectively rather challenging to reconcile.
In association with the information provided in the time-
domain structure, AGN spectra at VHE provide complimentary in-
formation about the nature of the emission process. The 2015 flare
of 3C 279, one of the two brightest such events ever observed by
the Fermi-LAT satellite over the past eight years, provided a unique
opportunity to probe the nature of the spectral shape. Investiga-
tions into the shape of the spectral cutoff, found the spectrum to
be describable by a stretched exponential cutoff, (Romoli et al.,
2017). This shape, under the assumption of emission through IC
scattering in the Thomson regime, is suggestive of an underlying
exponential cutoff in the electron spectrum (ie. βe = 1, see eqn. 2).
Bright flaring events from the blazar Mrk 501 and long dura-
tion observations of the radio galaxy Centaurus A have also turned
up spectral surprises. Namely, evidence has been revealed for the
onset of an unexpected hard spectral component at ∼ GeV ener-
gies in these two very different systems. In both the blazar and
radio galaxy cases, the presence of this new component cannot be
explained within the confines of the simplest models previously
put forward to explain their emission. Indeed, in the case of the
Mrk 501, the hardness of the spectrum observed, with an index of
 ≈ 1, poses a problem whose solution promises to provide ex-
citing new insights into the acceleration and emission process at
work.
Accompanying the information encoded in their energy spec-
tra, additional further information is available for nearby resolved
objects from their spatial morphology. Centaurus A, a local radio
galaxy, has been discovered to possess lobe structures at gamma-
ray energies, from observations made with the Fermi-LAT satellite
(The Fermi collaboration, 2010). Such features are consistent with
those observed previously at radio energies. However, comparisons
between the radio and gamma-ray morphologies of the giant radio
lobes now reveal peculiar differences between them. Specifically,
the gamma-ray emission region has been found to extend beyond
that of the radio emission region in both the northern and south-
ern lobes (Sun et al., 2016). Moreover, the gamma-ray spectra origi-
nating from different regions within the lobes have been shown to
differ considerably. Such variations are difficult to explain within
either a simple leptonic or hadronic emission scenario.
In summary, exciting and increasingly challenging new results
have arisen in the maturing discipline of VHE AGN astrophysics.
The achievement of these results have come about both through
the discovery of bright new objects which are demonstrating
new unexpected phenomenon, as well as through observations of
more familiar objects which have proven to be more complex and
rich than perhaps previously realised. These developments collec-
tively ensure that the field of VHE astrophysics continues to both
broaden and deepen our understanding of AGN, fundamentally
providing key insights into how these effective particle accelera-
tors operate.
Acknowledgement
AT acknowledges a Schroedinger fellowship at DIAS.
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