Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21743020m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #430.20; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
A possible source of γ-ray photons observed from the jets of blazars is inverse Compton scattering by relativistic electrons of infrared seed photons from a hot, dusty torus in the nucleus. We use observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope to search for signatures of dust in the infrared spectra of four γ-ray bright blazars, the quasars 4C21.35, CTA102, and PKS 1510-089, and the BL Lacertae object ON231. The spectral energy distribution (SED) of the quasar 4C 21.35 contains a prominent infrared excess indicative of dust emission. After subtracting a non-thermal component with a power-law spectrum, we fit a dust model to the residual SED. The model consists of a blackbody with temperature 1200 K, plus a much weaker optically thin component at 660 K. The total luminosity of the thermal dust emission is 7.9(2)E+45 erg/s . If the dust lies in an equatorial torus, the density of IR photons from the torus is sufficient to explain the γ-ray flux from 4C21.35 as long as the scattering occurs within a few parsecs of the central engine. Upper limits to the luminosity from thermal emission from dust in CTA102, PKS 1510-089, and ON231, are 1.1E+46 , 2.3E+45 , and 6.6E+43 erg/s , respectively. The covering factor of the hot dust in 4C 21.35, 32%, is similar to non-blazar quasars, however 4C 21.35 is deficient in cooler dust. This could be the result of either ultraviolet emission from the jet heating the outer portions of the dust torus.
Elitzur Moshe
Jorstad Svetlana G.
Malmrose Michael
Marscher Alan P.
Nikutta Robert
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