mm-VLBI Studies of Gamma-Ray Bright Radio Galaxies

• Applicant: Dr. Biagina Boccardi
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 443220636

Nearby radio galaxies are ideal laboratories to study the physical processes occurring in the vicinity of supermassive black holes. In radio galaxies, unlike in blazars, projection and relativistic effects have a mild impact on the observed jet emission, which enables us to more easily infer the intrinsic jet properties and to probe emitting regions which would be, otherwise, hidden. In this project we will conduct millimeter-VLBI studies of radio galaxies detected by the Fermi-LAT telescope at gamma-ray energies, with the aim of characterizing the jet internal structure, pinpointing the high-energy emission sites, and modeling the broadband emission. The novelty of our approach resides in the possibility to directly constrain the fundamental parameters of the relativistic plasma, on the exact scales where the gamma-ray emission is thought to originate. While previous analyses have been limited to a few case studies, our goal is to obtain a broad overview of the high-energy emission processes in relation to the accretion properties and the jet power.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 5195: Relativistic Jets in Active Galaxies
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. J. Anton Zensus