Coherent plasma processes in active galactic nuclei

The physics of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and related objects is one of the most actively pursued areas of astrophysics. Their large luminosities over the entire electromagnetic spectrum combined with extremely short time variability has stimulated a large number of astrophysicists to propose rather unconventional ideas. A variety of radiation mechanisms such as, thermal, synchrotron and Compton processes have been proposed to account for the complex continuum emission. It is only recently that the role of plasma radiation mechanisms has been shown to be of the utmost impor tance. It is demo...