BL Lac objects in the synchrotron proton blazar model

By A. Muecke, R. Protheroe, R. Engel, J. Rachen, T. Stanev. 2002

399 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We calculate the spectral energy distribution (SED) of electromagnetic radiation and the spectrum of high-energy neutrinos from BL Lac objects in the context of the synchrotron proton blazar model. In this model, the high-energy hump of the SED is due to accelerated protons, while most of the low-energy hump is due to synchrotron radiation by co-accelerated electrons. To accelerate protons to sufficiently high energies to produce the high-energy hump, rather high magnetic fields are required. Assuming reasonable emission region volumes and Doppler factors, we then find that in low-frequency peaked BL Lacs (LBLs), which have higher luminosities than high-frequency peaked BL Lacs (HBLs), there is a significant contribution to the high-frequency hump of the SED from pion photoproduction and subsequent cascading, including synchrotron radiation by muons. In contrast, in HBLs we find that the high-frequency hump of the SED is dominated by proton synchrotron radiation. We are able to model the SED of typical LBLs and HBLs, and to model the famous 1997 flare of Markarian 501. We also calculate the expected neutrino output of typical BL Lac objects, and estimate the diffuse neutrino intensity due to all BL Lacs. Because pion photoproduction is inefficient in HBLs, as protons lose energy predominantly by synchrotron radiation, the contribution of LBLs dominates the diffuse neutrino intensity. We suggest that nearby LBLs may well be observable with future high-sensitivity TeV γ-ray telescopes.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e45ef68edfd115e000de27934a3ffcbd3726d9ed

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Citations in the corpus

Dark matter and fundamental physics with the Cherenkov Telescope Array (2012, background): “The origin of such neutrinos could be from point-like sources like galactic microquasars [186,187] or extragalactic blazars [188,189] or gamma-ray bursts [190].”
Canonical high power blazars (2009, background): “…shocks), and a second one resulting from cascades initiated ⋆ Email: gabriele.ghisellini@brera.inaf.it by ultra–relativistic protons (Mannheim 1993; Mücke et al. 2003; Böttcher 2007); iii) Ultrarelativistic protons emit by the proton– synchrotron process at high energies (Aharonian 2000;…”
A Multiwavelength View of the TeV Blazar Markarian 421: Correlated Variability, Flaring, and Spectral Evolution (2005, background): “Alternatively, the jet might be energetically dominated by the magnetic field, and it is the synchrotron radiation from highly relativistic protons that might be responsible for the observed TeV gamma rays (Aharonian 2000; Mücke et al. 2003).”
Parameterization of γ, epm, and Neutrino Spectra Produced by p-p Interaction in Astronomical Environments (2006, neutral): “For some AGN jets, the above scenario does not work well, and p − p interaction has been proposed as an alternative mechanism (Mücke & Protheroe 2001; Mücke et al. 2003; Böttcher & Reimer 2004).”
Extreme TeV blazars and the intergalactic magnetic field (2010, background): “However, blazar primary spectra could extend well above the limits derived in the SSC model discussed here if, for instance, the VHE emission is the result of hadronic processes (e.g. Mücke et al. 2003).”
BLAZARS AS ULTRA-HIGH-ENERGY COSMIC-RAY SOURCES: IMPLICATIONS FOR TeV GAMMA-RAY OBSERVATIONS (2011, background): “More luminous blazars, including low-peaked BL Lac objects, may however lead to higher photomeson production efficiencies, so that the cumulative neutrino background could be dominated by this class of AGN (Mücke et al. 2003).”
Variable Very High Energy γ-Ray Emission from Markarian 501 (2007, background): “…baryonic outflow with the ambient medium3, and/or by interactions of ultra-highenergy protons with synchrotron photons produced by electrons (Mannheim & Biermann 1992), with the jet magnetic field (Aharonian et al 2000), or with both (Mücke et al 2003; Atoyan et al 2003; Mannheim 1993).”
The power of blazar jets (2007, background): “The so-called ‘hadronic’ models invoke the presence of highly relativistic protons, directly emitting via synchrotron or inducing electron–positron (e±) pair cascades following protonproton or proton–photon interactions (e.g., Mannheim 1993, Aharonian 2000, Mücke et al. 2003, Atoyan & Dermer 2003).”
FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE GAMMA-RAY DETECTION OF THE RADIO GALAXY M87 (2009, methodology): “Applying the synchrotron-proton blazar model (Mücke et al. 2003; Reimer et al. 2004) to the quiescent M87 data set yields reasonable agreement model fits that support a highly magnetized compact emission region with approximate equipartition between fields and particles and a total jet power…”