Internal shocks in blazar jets

Abstract

The discovery of strong gamma-ray and hard X-ray emission and the results from various multifrequency campaigns have disclosed new aspects of the blazar phenomenology, leading to a much more robust understanding of the mechanisms underlying their emission, and offering clues for the energetics of their relativistic jets. I review these aspects, and propose that all the diversity in the blazar phenomenology depends on only one parameter. I also suggest that some of the blazar characteristics can be explained by the internal shock scenario, as proposed to explain the emission from gamma-ray bursts.