New class of very high energy γ-ray emitters: Radio-dark mini shells surrounding active galactic nucleus jets

Abstract

We explore non-thermal emission from a shocked interstellar medium, which is identified as an expanding shell, driven by a relativistic jet in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). In this work, we particularly focus on parsec-scale size mini shells surrounding mini radio lobes. From the radio to X-ray band, the mini radio lobe emission dominates the faint emission from the mini shell. On the other hand, we find that inverse-Compton (IC) emission from the shell can overwhelm the associated lobe emission at the very high energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) γ-ray range, because energy densities of synchrotron photons from the lobe and/or soft photons from the AGN nucleus are large and IC scattering works effectively. The predicted IC emission from nearby mini shells can be detected with the Cherenkov Telescope Array and they are potentially a new class of VHE γ-ray emitters. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.