An Angle Dependent SSC Model for Relativistic Jet Sources

TL;DR

This paper introduces a numerical model for calculating angle-dependent synchrotron and self-Compton radiation in relativistic jets, accounting for magnetic field configurations and particle anisotropy, and demonstrates its application to observed spectra.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel multi-zone radiation transfer code that models angle-dependent emission from relativistic jets with various magnetic field orientations and particle distributions.

Findings

Spectral fits to Mrk 421 data are possible with magnetic fields varying by an order of magnitude.

The model can simulate a range of magnetic field configurations from ordered to tangled.

Acceptable fits depend on magnetic field orientation and degree of order.

Abstract

We report on the development of a numerical code to calculate the angle-dependent synchrotron + synchrotron self-Compton radiation from relativistic jet sources with partially ordered magnetic fields and anisotropic particle distributions. Using a multi-zone radiation transfer approach, we can simulate magnetic-field configurations ranging from perfectly ordered (unidirectional) to randomly oriented (tangled). We demonstrate that synchrotron self-Compton model fits to the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of extragalactic jet sources may be possible with a wide range of magnetic-field values, depending on their orientation with respect to the jet axis and the observer. This is illustrated with the example of a spectral fit to the SED of Mrk~421 from multi-wavelength observations in 2006, where acceptable fits are possible with magnetic-field values varying within a range of an order of magnitude for different degrees of B-field alignment and orientation.