Cascade Model of an Anomaly in Blazar Spectra at Very High Energy

TL;DR

This paper proposes a cascade model to explain anomalies in blazar spectra at very high energies, suggesting that electromagnetic cascades can significantly influence observed gamma-ray spectra and potentially resolve existing spectral anomalies.

Contribution

The study introduces a cascade model that accounts for secondary gamma-ray components, providing a new explanation for spectral anomalies in blazars at very high energies.

Findings

Electromagnetic cascades can reduce the significance of spectral anomalies.

Observational data support the existence of cascade components in gamma-ray spectra.

The cascade model aligns with observed spectra of extragalactic gamma-ray sources.

Abstract

It is well known that the effect of gamma-ray absorption on extragalactic background light (EBL) is weakly expressed in the spectra of some blazars. It is shown that a secondary component generated by electromagnetic cascades might considerably decrease the statistical significance of this anomaly. Observational results indicate the existence of the cascade component in the spectra of extragalactic gamma-ray sources, thus supporting the proposed model.