On the external photon fields in Fermi bright blazars

TL;DR

This paper investigates the properties of external photon fields in bright blazars using Fermi LAT data, revealing that the ratio of external photon to magnetic energy density remains constant, which constrains jet dynamics.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the variability of external photon fields and their relation to jet parameters in blazars based on Fermi observations.

Findings

The external photon parameter Uext/nuext may not be constant.

Synchrotron and inverse Compton luminosities are approximately linearly related.

The ratio of external photon to magnetic energy density is constant in the comoving frame.

Abstract

The external Compton (EC) model is used to study the high energy emission of some blazars, in which the external photon field is considered to dominate inverse Compton radiation. We explore the properties of external photon field through analyzing the FERMI LAT bright AGN sample within three months detection. In the sample, assuming the high energy radiation of low synchrotron peaked blazars from the EC process, we find that the external photon parameter Uext/\nuext may not be a constant. Calculating synchrotron and inverse Compton (IC) luminosity from the quasi-simultaneous broadband spectrum energy distributions (SEDs), we find that they have an approximately linear relation. This indicates that the ratio of external photon and magnetic energy density is a constant in the comoving frame, implying that the Lorentz factor of the emitting blob depends on external photon field and magnetic field. The result gives a strong constraint on the jet dynamic model.