Photon and neutrino emission from active galactic nuclei

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model explaining the blazar sequence as the result of particle interactions in relativistic jets, predicting correlations between black hole mass, emission peaks, and neutrino fluxes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model linking black hole mass to emission features and neutrino production in active galactic nuclei jets, based on particle interactions and shockwave dynamics.

Findings

Peak frequencies scale with black hole mass as M_{BH}^{-1/2}

Luminosities scale with black hole mass, M_{BH}

Model predicts high fluxes of ultra high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos

Abstract

Supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies are very common. They are known to rotate, accrete, spin down and eject highly relativistic jets; those jets pointed at us all seem to show a spectrum with two strong bumps, one in the TeV photon range, and one in X-rays - ordered by the emission frequency of the first bump this constitutes the blazar sequence. Here we wish to explain this sequence as the combined interaction of electrons and protons with the magnetic field and radiation field at the first strong shockwave pattern in the relativistic jet. With two key assumptions on particle scattering, this concept predicts that the two basic maximum peak frequencies scale with the mass of the central black hole as $M_{BH}^{-1/2}$, have a ratio of $(m_p/m_e)^{3}$, and the luminosities with the mass itself $M_{BH}$. Due to strong losses of the leptons, the peak luminosities are generally the same, but with large variations around equality. This model predicts large fluxes in ultra high energy cosmic rays, and also large neutrino luminosities.