Lepto-hadronic modelling of blazar emission

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new stationary lepto-hadronic code for modeling blazar spectral energy distributions, capable of analyzing pure and mixed lepto-hadronic emission scenarios, with application to PKS 2155-304.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel computational tool that simultaneously models leptonic, hadronic, and mixed emission processes in blazars.

Findings

The code successfully models the SED of PKS 2155-304.

It enables analysis of combined lepto-hadronic emission contributions.

The approach advances understanding of blazar emission mechanisms.

Abstract

The characteristic double-bumped spectral energy distribution (SED) of blazars is explained by either leptonic or hadronic models. In the former, Inverse Compton emission dominates the emission of the high energy bump, while proton synchrotron emission and proton-gamma interactions dominate it in the latter. We present a new stationary lepto-hadronic code that evaluates both the leptonic and the hadronic interactions. Apart from the modelling of the SED produced in a leptonic or hadronic model, the code permits the study of interesting mixed lepto-hadronic scenarios, where both processes contribute significantly to the high energy bump. A first application to data from the high frequency peaked BL Lac object PKS 2155-304 is discussed.