Volume 501 - 39th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2025) - Gamma-Ray Astrophysics
Detection Prospects for AGNs with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
L. Passos Reis*, E. De Gouveia Dal Pino, T. Hassan, S. Pita, J. Biteau, J.P. Lenain, A. Acharyya, A. Dominguez, L. Gréaux, L.A. Stuani Pereira, E. Moura Santos, P. Goldoni  on behalf of the CTAO Consortium
*: corresponding author
Full text: pdf
Pre-published on: September 24, 2025
Published on: December 30, 2025
Abstract
The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) will enable detailed studies of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the very-high-energy (VHE) regime, as the next-generation ground-based gamma-ray observatory, designed to enhance sensitivity and energy coverage (20 GeV - 300 TeV) over current Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). In the context of the CTAO Science Collaboration, within the AGN Population working group, we developed a variability-based strategy to improve predictions of AGNs detectable by CTAO, using Fermi-LAT data and normalized excess variance (NXS) as a tracer of flux variability. By extrapolating from 30-day to 3-day timescales, we expanded the sample of sources with short-timescale variability estimates from 87 to 407. This approach allows us to identify flaring and distant AGNs that are promising CTAO targets. The results are being used to support the CTAO extragalactic science program and will be included in an upcoming Consortium publication for the AGN Population collaboration.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22323/1.501.0798
How to cite

Metadata are provided both in article format (very similar to INSPIRE) as this helps creating very compact bibliographies which can be beneficial to authors and readers, and in proceeding format which is more detailed and complete.

Open Access
Creative Commons LicenseCopyright owned by the author(s) under the term of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.