An Evolutionary Scenario for Blazar Unification

By M. Böttcher, C. Dermer. 2001

154 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Blazar subclasses ranging from flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) through low-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (LBLs) to high-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (HBLs) exhibit a sequence of increasing spectral hardness with decreasing luminosity that cannot be explained solely by orientation effects. Using an analytic model for the synchrotron, synchrotron self-Compton, and Compton-scattered external radiation from blazar jets, we propose an evolutionary scenario that links these blazar subclasses in terms of a reduction of the black hole accretion power with time. As the circumnuclear material accretes to fuel the central engine, less gas and dust are left to scatter accretion-disk radiation and produce an external Compton-scattered component in blazar spectra. This evolutionary trend produces the sequence FSRQ → LBL → HBL. Such a scenario may also link radio-loud AGNs with ultraluminous infrared galaxies and optical quasars, if the latter constitute the high-Eddington-ratio epoch of supermassive black hole growth, as suggested by the observed anticorrelation between radio and soft X-ray activity in some Galactic black hole candidates.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9d75f5cac51306742404bb9d2a5518315a00a12e

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Citations in the corpus

THE COSMIC EVOLUTION OF FERMI BL LACERTAE OBJECTS (2013, background): “However, one may interpret this spectral sequence as a progression caused by the gradual depletion of an AGN’s gas reservoir via accretion (e.g. Cavaliere & D’Elia 2002; Böttcher & Dermer 2002).”
The Fermi blazars' divide (2009, methodology): “…FR I radio–galaxies) is due to a difference in the accretion regim of their disks has been already put forward (Ghisellini & Celotti 2001; Jester 2005) and used to explain the different cosmic evolution of these two classes of blazars (see e.g. Böttcher & Dermer 2002; Cavaliere & D’Elia 2002).”
The Jet-Disk Connection and Blazar Unification (2002, methodology): “…two classes of sources into a single blazar population, previously proposed on the basis of a spectral sequence governed by luminosity (Fossati et al. 1998; Ghisellini et al. 1998) and recently revisited by Cavaliere & D’Elia (2002) and Böttcher & Dermer (2002) therefore finds a physical basis.”
Neutral Beams from Blazar Jets (2002, background): “Thus, our model is consistent with the evolutionary scenario proposed by Böttcher & Dermer (2002) and Cavaliere & D’Elia (2002) to explain the spectral sequence of FSRQs, and low- and high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects.”
General physical properties of bright Fermi blazars (2009, result): “It also agrees with the scenario proposed by Cavaliere & D’Elia (2002) and Böttcher & Dermer (2002).”
BRIGHT ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI SOURCE LIST FROM THE FIRST THREE MONTHS OF THE FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ALL-SKY SURVEY (2009, background): “…objects are the late stages of FSRQs,755 as the gas and dust produced in a galaxy merger or tidal interaction fuels the supermassive black756 hole (Böttcher & Dermer 2002; Cavaliere & D’Elia 2002), provides a framework to understand the757 blazar phenomenology and makes definite predictions…”
FERMI/LARGE AREA TELESCOPE DISCOVERY OF GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM A RELATIVISTIC JET IN THE NARROW-LINE QUASAR PMN J0948+0022 (2009, background): “The sequence can also be interpreted in an evolutionary frame (Böttcher & Dermer 2002, Cavaliere & D’Elia 2002).”