@phdthesis{Weidinger2011,
  author    = {Weidinger, Matthias},
  title     = {Variabilit{\"a}t entlang der Blazar-Sequenz - Hinweise auf die Zusammensetzung relativistischer Ausfl{\"u}sse Aktiver Galaxienkerne},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-70508},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {Die vorliegende Arbeit besch{\"a}ftigt sich mit der Abstrahlung von Aktiven Galaxienkernen. Das erste Maximum der charakteristischen Doppelpeakstruktur des \$\nu F_{\nu}\$-Spektrums vom Blazaren ist zweifelsfrei Synchrotronstrahlung hochenergetischer Elektronen innerhalb des relativistischen Ausflusses des zugrundeliegenden Aktiven Galaxienkerns. Die zum zweiten (hochenergetischen) Maximum beitragenden Strahlungsprozesse und Teilchenspezies hingegen sind Gegenstand aktueller Diskussionen. In dieser Arbeit wir ein vollst{\"a}ndig selbstkonsistentes und zeitabh{\"a}ngiges hybrides Emissionsmodell, welches auch Teilchenbeschleunigung ber{\"u}cksichtigt, entwickelt und auf verschiedene Blazar-Typen entlang der Blazar-Sequenz, von BL Lac Objekten mit verschiedenen Peakfrequenzen bis hin zu Flachspektrum-Radioquasaren, angewendet. Die spektrale Emission ersterer kann gut im rein leptonischen Grenzfall, d.h. der zweite \$\nu F_{\nu}\$-Peak kommt durch invers Compton-gestreute Synchrotronphotonen der abstrahlenden Elektronen selbst zustande, beschrieben werden. Zur Beschreibung letzterer muss man nicht-thermische Protonen innerhalb des Jets zulassen um die Dominanz des zweiten Maximums im Spektrum konsistent zu erkl{\"a}ren. In diesem Fall besteht der zweite Peak aus Protonensynchrotronstrahlung und Kaskadenstrahlung der photohadronischen Prozesse. Mit dem entwickelten Modell ist es m{\"o}glich auch die zeitliche Information, welche durch Ausbr{\"u}che von Blazaren bereitgestellt wird, auszunutzen um zum einen die freien Modellparameter weiter einzuschr{\"a}nken und -viel wichtiger- zum anderen leptonisch dominierte Blazare von hadronischen zu unterscheiden. Hierzu werden die typischen Zeitunterschiede in den Interbandlichtkurven als hadronischer Fingerabdruck benutzt.\\ Mit einer Stichprobe von 16 Spektren von zehn Blazaren entlang der Blazar-Sequenz, welche in unterschiedlichen Flusszust{\"a}nden und mit starker Variabilit{\"a}t beobachtet wurden, ist es m{\"o}glich die wichtigsten offenen Fragen der Physik relativistischer Ausbr{\"u}che in systematischer Art und Weise zu adressieren. Anhand der modellierten Ausbr{\"u}che kann man erkennen, dass sechs Quellen rein leptonisch dominiert sind, aber vier Protonen bis auf \$\gamma \approx 10^{11}\$ beschleunigen, was Auswirkungen auf die m{\"o}glichen Quellen extragalaktischer kosmischer Strahlung unter den Blazaren hat. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus findet sich eine Abh{\"a}ngigkeit zwischen dem Magnetfeld der Emissionsregion und der injizierten Leuchtkraft, welche unabh{\"a}ngig von den zugrunde liegenden Teilchenpopulationen G{\"u}ltigkeit besitzt. In diesem Zusammenhang l{\"a}sst sich die Blazar-Sequenz als ein evolution{\"a}res Szenario erkl{\"a}ren: die Sequenz \$FSRQ \rightarrow LBL/IBL \rightarrow HBL\$ kommt aufgrund abnehmender Gasdichte der Hostgalaxie und damit einhergehender abnehmender Akkretionsrate zustande, dies wird durch weitere kosmologische Beobachtungen best{\"a}tigt. Eine abnehmende Materiedichte innerhalb des relativistischen Ausflusses wird von einem abnehmenden Magnetfeld begleitet, d.h. aber auch, dass Protonen weit vor den Elektronen nicht mehr im Strahlungsgebiet gehalten werden k{\"o}nnen. Die Blazar-Sequenz ist also ein Maß f{\"u}r die Hadronizit{\"a}t des Jets. Dies erkl{\"a}rt zudem die Dichotomie von FSRQs und BL Lac Objekten sowie die Zweiteilung in anderen Erscheinungsformen von AGN, z.B. FR-I und FR-II Radiogalaxien.\\ W{\"a}hrend der Modellierung wird gezeigt, dass man Blazar-Spektren, speziell im hadronischen Fall, nicht mehr statisch betrachten kann, da es zu kumulierten Effekten aufgrund der langen Protonensynchrotronzeitskala kommt. Die niedrige Luminosit{\"a}t der Quellen und unterschiedlich lange Beobachtungszeiten verschiedener Experimente verlangen bei variablen Blazaren auch im leptonischen Fall eine zeitabh{\"a}ngige Betrachtung. Die Kurzzeitvariabilit{\"a}t scheint bei einzelnen Blazaren stets die selbe Ursache zu haben, unterscheidet sich aber bei der Betrachtung verschiedener Quellen. Zus{\"a}tzlich wird f{\"u}r jeden Blazar, der in verschiedenen Flusszust{\"a}nden beobachtet werden konnte, der Unterschied zwischen Lang- und Kurzzeitvariabilit{\"a}t, auch im Hinblick auf einen m{\"o}glichen globalen Grundzustand hin, betrachtet.},
  subject      = {Blazar},
  language  = {de}
}
@phdthesis{Schulz2016,
  author    = {Schulz, Robert Frank},
  title     = {A radio view of high-energy emitting AGNs},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-137358},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {The most energetic versions of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) feature two highly-relativistic plasma outflows, so-called jets, that are created in the vicinity of the central supermassive black hole and evolve in opposite directions. In blazars, which dominate the extragalactic gamma-ray sky, the jets are aligned close to the observer's line of sight leading to strong relativistic beaming effects of the jet emission. Radio observations especially using very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) provide the best way to gain direct information on the intrinsic properties of jets down to sub-parsec scales, close to their formation region. In this thesis, I focus on the properties of three AGNs, IC 310, PKS 2004-447, and 3C 111 that belong to the small non-blazar population of gamma-ray-loud AGNs. In these kinds of AGNs, the jets are less strongly aligned with respect to the observer than in blazars. I study them in detail with a variety of radio astronomical instruments with respect to their high-energy emission and in the context of the large samples in the monitoring programmes MOJAVE and TANAMI. My analysis of radio interferometric observations and flux density monitoring data reveal very different characteristics of the jet emission in these sources. The work presented in this thesis illustrates the diversity of the radio properties of gamma-ray-loud AGNs that do not belong to the dominating class of blazars.},
  subject      = {Aktiver galaktischer Kern},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Berger2009,
  author    = {Berger, Karsten},
  title     = {Discovery and Characterization of the first Low-Peaked and Intermediate-Peaked BL Lacertae Objects in the Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Regime},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-37431},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2009},
  abstract  = {20 years after the discovery of the Crab Nebula as a source of very high energy gamma-rays, the number of sources newly discovered above 100 GeV using ground-based Cherenkov telescopes has considerably grown, at the time of writing of this thesis to a total of 81. The sources are of different types, including galactic sources such as supernova remnants, pulsars, binary systems, or so-far unidentified accelerators and extragalactic sources such as blazars and radio galaxies. The goal of this thesis work was to search for gamma-ray emission from a particular type of blazars previously undetected at very high gamma-ray energies, by using the MAGIC telescope. Those blazars previously detected were all of the same type, the so-called high-peaked BL Lacertae objects. The sources emit purely non-thermal emission, and exhibit a peak in their radio-to-X-ray spectral energy distribution at X-ray energies. The entire blazar population extends from these rare, low-luminosity BL Lacertae objects with peaks at X-ray energies to the much more numerous, high-luminosity infrared-peaked radio quasars. Indeed, the low-peaked sources dominate the source counts obtained from space-borne observations at gamma-ray energies up to 10 GeV. Their spectra observed at lower gamma-ray energies show power-law extensions to higher energies, although theoretical models suggest them to turn over at energies below 100 GeV. This opened the quest for MAGIC as the Cherenkov telescope with the currently lowest energy threshold. In the framework of this thesis, the search was focused on the prominent sources BL Lac, W Comae and S5 0716+714, respectively. Two of the sources were unambiguously discovered at very high energy gamma-rays with the MAGIC telescope, based on the analysis of a total of about 150 hours worth of data collected between 2005 and 2008. The analysis of this very large data set required novel techniques for treating the effects of twilight conditions on the data quality. This was successfully achieved and resulted in a vastly improved performance of the MAGIC telescope in monitoring campaigns. The detections of low-peaked and intermediate-peaked BL Lac objects are in line with theoretical expectations, but push the models based on electron shock acceleration and inverse-Compton cooling to their limits. The short variability time scales of the order of one day observed at very high energies show that the gamma-rays originate rather close to the putative supermassive black holes in the centers of blazars, corresponding to less than 1000 Schwarzschild radii when taking into account relativistic bulk motion.},
  subject      = {Aktiver galaktischer Kern},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Meyer2008,
  author    = {Meyer, Markus},
  title     = {Observations of a systematically selected sample of high frequency peaked BL Lac objects with the MAGIC telescope},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-28115},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2008},
  abstract  = {At the beginning of regular observations with the MAGIC telescope in December 2004, all but one extragalactic sources detected at very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays belonged to the class of high frequency peaked BL Lac (HBL) objects. This motivated a systematic scan of candidate sources to increase the number of known sources and to study systematically their spectral properties. As candidate sources for VHE emission, X-ray bright HBLs were selected from a compilation of active galactic nuclei. The MAGIC observations took place from December 2004 to March 2006. The declination of the objects was restricted to values between -1.2° and +58.8° corresponding to a maximum zenith distance lower than 30° at culmination. Since gamma-rays are absorbed by photo-pair production in low energy background radiation fields, the redshift of the investigated objects was limitetd to z < 0.3. Under the assumption that HBLs generally emit the same energy flux at 1keV as at 200GeV, only the brightest X-ray sources were observed, leading to a cut in the X-ray flux of F(1keV) > 2µJy}. Of the fourteen sources observed, four have been detected: 1ES 1218+304 (for the first time at very high energies), 1ES 2344+514 (strong detection in a state of low activity), Mrk 421 and Mrk 501. A hint of a signal on a 3-sigma-level from the direction of 1ES 1011+496 has been observed. In the meantime the object has been confirmed as a source of VHE gamma-rays by a second MAGIC observation campaign triggered by an optical outburst. For ten sources, upper limits on their integral fluxes above 200GeV have been calculated on a 99\% confidence level. To cross calibrate the different data samples, collected during 14 months, bright muon ring images have been used, recorded as background events by the MAGIC telescope. Based on the development by Meyer (2003), the method has been improved and implemented into the automatic data analysis as a continuous monitor of the calibration and the point spread function of the optical system. While the ring images are generated by muons with small impact parameters, it could be shown that the image parameter distributions for muons with large impact parameters and gamma showers completely overlap, revealing these muons as the dominant background for gamma-ray observations below energies of 150GeV. The sample of HBLs (including all HBLs detected at VHE so far) has been investigated for correlations between broad-band spectral indices as determined from simultaneous optical, archival X-ray and radio luminosities, finding that the VHE emitting HBLs do not differ from the non-detected ones. In general the absorption corrected HBL gamma-ray luminosities at 200GeV are not higher than their X-ray luminosities at 1keV. Based on a complete X-ray BL Lac sample, the Hamburg/ROSAT X-ray BL Lac sample, the number of expected VHE sources has been estimated for the performed scan, finding a consistent number under the assumption of a 37\% completeness of the investigated sample and a 1keV-to-200GeV luminosity ratio of 1.4. An upper limit on the omnidirectional flux at 200GeV has been calculated by interpolating the sum over the observed fluxes and upper limits. Within the uncertainties, the result is in agreement with the expectations derived from the X-ray luminosity function of BL Lacs. For 1ES 1218+304 and 1ES 2344+514 the lightcurves have been derived, showing evidence for flux variability on a time scale of 17 days and 24h, respectively. In the case of 1ES 1218+304 variability has been reported for the first time at VHEs. For both sources the energy spectra have been reconstructed and discussed in the context of their broad band spectral energy distribution (SED), using a single zone synchrotron self Compton model. The SEDs are well fitted by the simulation even though the very high peak frequencies at gamma-rays push the model to its limits. The parameters derived from the simulation are in good agreement with the parameters found for similar HBLs.},
  subject      = {Aktiver galaktischer Kern},
  language  = {en}
}