Theoretical Study Of The Effects Of Magnetic Field Geometry On The High-Energy Emission Of Blazars

Abstract

The knowledge of the structure of the magnetic field inside a blazar jet, as deduced from polarization observations at radio to optical wavelengths, is closely related to the formation and propagation of relativistic jets that result from accretion onto supermassive black holes. However, a largely unexplored aspect of the theoretical understanding of radiation transfer physics in blazar jets has been the magnetic field geometry as revealed by the polarized emission and the connection between the variability in polarization and flux across the spectrum. Here, we explore the effects of various magnetic geometries that can exist inside a blazar jet: parallel, oblique, toroidal, and tangled. We investigate the effects of changing the orientation of the magnetic field, according to the above-mentioned geometries, on the resulting high-energy spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and spectral variability patterns (SVPs) of a typical blazar. We use the MUlti-ZOne Radiation Feedback (MUZORF) model of Joshi et al. (2014) to carry out this study and to relate the geometry of the field to the observed SEDs at X-ray and gamma-ray energies. One of the goals of the study is to understand the relationship between synchrotron and inverse Compton peaks in blazar SEDs and the reason for the appearance of gamma-ray "orphan flares" observed in some blazars. This can be associated with the directionality of the magnetic field, which creates a difference in the radiation field as seen by an observer versus that seen by the electrons in the emission region.

9 pages, 9 figures, accepted in the journal Galaxies. Conference proceedings for "Blazars through Sharp Multi-wavelength Eyes"

References in corpus (5)

• Fermi Large Area Telescope Bright Gamma-ray Source List
• Probing the Inner Jet of the Quasar PKS 1510-089 with Multi-waveband Monitoring during Strong Gamma-ray Activity
• Multiwaveband Polarimetric Observations of 15 Active Galactic Nuclei at High Frequencies: Correlated Polarization Behavior
• Rapid Multiwaveband Polarization Variability in the Quasar PKS 0420-014: Optical Emission from the Compact Radio Jet
• Seed Photon Fields of Blazars in the Internal Shock Scenario

Cited by in corpus (5)

• A peculiar multi-wavelength flare in the Blazar 3C 454.3
• A unified model for orphan and multi-wavelength blazar flares
• Optical/$\gamma$-ray blazar flare correlations: understanding the high-energy emission process using ASAS-SN and Fermi light curves
• Multi-wavelength Temporal Variability of the Blazar 3C 454.3 during 2014 Activity Phase
• Peculiar Behavior of Optical Polarization in Blazar 1ES 1959+650: Role of Jet Magnetic Field and Geometry