Multiwaveband Variability of Blazars from Turbulent Plasma Passing through a Standing Shock: The Mother of Multi-zone Models

Details Multiwaveband Variability of Blazars from Turbulent Plasma Passing through a Standing Shock: The Mother of Multi-zone Models Multiwaveband Variability of Blazars from Turbulent Plasma Passing through a Standing Shock: The Mother of Multi-zone Models

Sep 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011head...12.0706m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #12, #7.06

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Multi-wavelength light curves of bright gamma-ray blazars (e.g., 3C 454.3) are compared with the model proposed by Marscher and Jorstad. In this scenario, much of the optical and high-energy radiation in a blazar is emitted near the 43 GHz core of the jet as seen in VLBA images, parsecs from the central engine. The main physical features are a turbulent ambient jet plasma that passes through a standing recollimation shock in the jet. The model allows for short time-scales of optical and gamma-ray variability by restricting the highest-energy electrons radiating at these frequencies to a small fraction of the turbulent cells, perhaps those with a particular orientation of the magnetic field relative to the shock front. Because of this, the volume filling factor at high frequencies is relatively low, while that of the electrons radiating below about 10 THz is near unity. Such a model is consistent with the (1) red-noise power spectra of flux variations, (2) shorter time-scales of variability at higher frequencies, (3) frequency dependence of polarization and its variability, and (4) breaks in the synchrotron spectrum by more than the radiative loss value of 0.5. Simulated light curves are generated by a numerical code that (as of May 2011) includes synchrotron radiation as well as inverse Compton scattering of seed photons from both a dust torus and a Mach disk at the jet axis. The latter source of seed photons produces more pronounced variability in gamma-ray than in optical light curves, as is often observed. More features are expected to be added to the code by the time of the presentation.
This research is supported in part by NASA through Fermi grants NNX08AV65G and NNX10AO59G, and by NSF grant AST-0907893.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Multiwaveband Variability of Blazars from Turbulent Plasma Passing through a Standing Shock: The Mother of Multi-zone Models does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Multiwaveband Variability of Blazars from Turbulent Plasma Passing through a Standing Shock: The Mother of Multi-zone Models, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Multiwaveband Variability of Blazars from Turbulent Plasma Passing through a Standing Shock: The Mother of Multi-zone Models will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1402262