A hadronic origin for ultra-high-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects

Abstract

Current Cherenkov telescopes have identified a population of ultra-high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects (UHBLs), also known as extreme blazars, that exhibit exceptionally hard TeV spectra, including 1ES 0229+200, 1ES 0347-121, RGB J0710+591, 1ES 1101-232, and 1ES 1218+304. Although one-zone synchrotron-self-Compton (SSC) models have been generally successful in interpreting the high-energy emission observed in other BL Lac objects, they are problematic for UHBLs, necessitating very large Doppler factors and/or extremely high minimum Lorentz factors of the emitting leptonic population. In this context, we have investigated alternative scenarios where hadronic emission processes are important, using a newly developed (lepto-)hadronic numerical code to systematically explore the physical parameters of the emission region that reproduces the observed spectra while avoiding the extreme values encountered in pure SSC models. Assuming a fixed Doppler factor $\delta =30$, two principal parameter regimes are identified, where the high-energy emission is due to: 1) proton-synchrotron radiation, with magnetic fields $B\sim 1-100\text{G}$ and maximum proton energies $E_{p;max}\lesssim 10^{19}$ eV; and 2) synchrotron emission from p-$\gamma$-induced cascades as well as SSC emission from primary leptons, with $B\sim 0.1-1\text{G}$ and $E_{p;max}\lesssim 10^{17}$ eV. This can be realized with plausible, sub-Eddington values for the total (kinetic plus magnetic) power of the emitting plasma, in contrast to hadronic interpretations for other blazar classes that often warrant highly super-Eddington values.

19 pages, 6 figures; new version to match the published one

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