We present the first extensive radio to γ-ray observations of a fast-rising blue optical transient (FBOT), AT 2018cow, over its first ∼100 days. AT 2018cow rose over a few days to a peak luminosity L pk ∼ 4 × 10 44 erg s −1 exceeding those of superluminous supernovae (SNe), before declining as L ∝ t −2 . Initial spectra at δt 15 days were mostly featureless and indicated large expansion velocities v ∼ 0.1 c and temperatures arXiv:1810.10720v1 [astro-ph.HE] 25 Oct 2018 2 MARGUTTI ET AL. reaching T ∼ 3 × 10 4 K. Later spectra revealed a persistent optically-thick photosphere and the emergence of H and He emission features with v ∼ 4000 km s −1 with no evidence for ejecta cooling. Our broad-band monitoring revealed a hard X-ray spectral component at E ≥ 10 keV, in addition to luminous and highly variable soft X-rays, with properties unprecedented among astronomical transients. An abrupt change in the X-ray decay rate and variability appears to accompany the change in optical spectral properties. AT 2018cow showed bright radio emission consistent with the interaction of a blastwave with v sh ∼ 0.1 c with a dense environment (Ṁ ∼ 10 −3 − 10 −4 M yr −1 for v w = 1000 km s −1 ). While these properties exclude 56 Ni-powered transients, our multi-wavelength analysis instead indicates that AT 2018cow harbored a "central engine", either a compact object (magnetar or black hole) or an embedded internal shock produced by interaction with a compact, dense circumstellar medium. The engine released ∼ 10 50 − 10 51.5 erg over ∼ 10 3 − 10 5 s and resides within lowmass fast-moving material with equatorial-polar density asymmetry (M ej,fast 0.3 M ). Successful SNe from low-mass H-rich stars (like electron-capture SNe) or failed explosions from blue supergiants satisfy these constraints. Intermediate-mass black-holes are disfavored by the large environmental density probed by the radio observations.

The spectra of BL Lac objects and Fanaroff-Riley I radio galaxies are commonly explained by the one-zone leptonic synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model. Spectral modeling of correlated multiwavelength data gives the comoving magnetic field strength, the bulk outflow Lorentz factor and the emission region size. Assuming the validity of the SSC model, the Hillas condition shows that only in rare cases can such sources accelerate protons to much above 10 19 eV, so 10 20 eV ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are likely to be heavy ions if powered by this type of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN). Survival of nuclei is shown to be possible in TeV BL Lacs and misaligned counterparts with weak photohadronic emissions. Another signature of hadronic production is intergalactic UHECR-induced cascade emission, which is an alternative explanation of the TeV spectra of some extreme non-variable blazars such as 1ES 0229+200 or 1ES 1101-232. We study this kind of cascade signal, taking into account effects of the structured extragalactic magnetic fields in which the sources should be embedded. We demonstrate the importance of cosmic-ray deflections on the γ-ray flux, and show that required absolute cosmic-ray luminosities are larger than the average UHECR luminosity inferred from UHECR observations and can even be comparable to the Eddington luminosity of supermassive black holes. Future TeV γ-ray observations using the Cherenkov Telescope Array and the High Altitude Water Cherenkov detector array can test for UHECR acceleration by observing > 25 TeV photons from relatively low-redshift sources such as 1ES 0229+200, and TeV photons from more distant radio-loud AGN.

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In this paper, we have selected a sample of 64 teraelectronvolt blazars, with redshift, from those classified in the fourth Fermi Large Area Telescope source catalog a) . We have obtained the values of the relevant physical parameters by performing a log-parabolic fitting of the average-state multiwavelength spectral energy distributions. We estimate the range of the radiation zone parameters, such as the Doppler factor (D), the magnetic field strength (B), the radiative zone radius (R) and the peak Lorentz factor (γ p ) of nonthermal electrons. Here, we show that (1) there is a strong linear positive correlation between the intrinsic synchrotron peak frequency and the intrinsic inverse Compton scattering (ICs) peak frequency among different types of blazars; (2) if radio bands are excluded, the spectral index of each band is negatively correlated with the intrinsic peak frequency; (3) there is a strong linear negative correlation between the curvature at the peak and the intrinsic peak frequency of the synchrotron bump, and a weak positive correlation between the curvature at the peak and the intrinsic peak frequency of the ICs bump; (4) there is a strong linear positive correlation between the intrinsic ICs peak luminosity and intrinsic γ-ray luminosity and between the intrinsic ICs peak frequency and peak Lorentz factor;(5) there is a strong negative linear correlation between log B and log γ p ; and (6) there is no correlation between log R and log γ p .