Stochastic Gyroresonant Acceleration for Hard Electron Spectra of Blazars: Effect of Damping of Cascading Turbulence

TL;DR

This paper investigates how damping of turbulence affects stochastic gyroresonant acceleration of electrons in blazars, showing that damping prevents the formation of ultrarelativistic Maxwellian-like spectra, resulting in softer electron and photon spectra.

Contribution

It demonstrates that turbulence damping inhibits the formation of hard Maxwellian-like electron spectra in stochastic acceleration models of blazars.

Findings

Damping of turbulent fields prevents Maxwellian-like electron spectra formation.

A softer electron spectrum with index ~-1 is produced under Kolmogorov cascade assumptions.

The resulting SSC photon spectrum is still hard but softer and broader than the m=2 case.

Abstract

Stochastic acceleration of nonthermal electrons is investigated in the context of hard photon spectra of blazars. It is well known that this acceleration mechanism can produce a hard electron spectrum of $m \equiv \partial \ln n_{\rm e}(\gamma)/\partial \ln \gamma = 2$ with the high-energy cutoff, called an ultrarelativistic Maxwellian-like distribution, where $n_{\rm e}(\gamma)$ is an electron energy spectrum. We revisit the formation of this characteristic spectrum, considering a particular situation where the electrons are accelerated through gyroresonant interaction with magnetohydrodynamic wave turbulence driven by the turbulent cascade. By solving kinetic equations of the turbulent fields, electrons, and photons emitted via the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) process, we demonstrate that in the non-test-particle treatment, the formation of a Maxwellian-like distribution is prevented by the damping effect on the turbulent fields due to the electron acceleration, at least unless an extreme parameter value is chosen. Instead, a softer electron spectrum with the index of $m \approx -1$ is produced if the Kolmogorov-type cascade is assumed. The SSC spectrum that originates from the resultant softer electron spectrum is still hard, but somewhat softer and broader than the case of $m=2$. This change of achievable hardness should be noted when this basic particle acceleration scenario is tested with observations of hard photon spectra accurately.