High-energy radiation from active galactic nuclei

Abstract

Two recent findings concerning high-energy radiation properties of active galactic nuclei -- discovery of breaks in hard X-ray spectra of Seyfert galaxies, and discovery of huge fluxes of hard gamma rays from blazars -- seem to press us to change our standard views about radiation production in these objects. I review briefly the existing radiation models, confront them with the newest observations, and discuss newly emerging theoretical pictures which attempt to account for the discoveries.