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arXiv · 1205.5237

Emitting electrons and source activity in Markarian 501

Nijil Mankuzhiyil·Stefano Ansoldi·Massimo Persic·Elizabeth Rivers·Richard Rothschild·Fabrizio Tavecchio
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Abstract

We study the variation of the broad-band spectral energy distribution (SED) of the BL Lac object Mrk 501 as a function of source activity, from quiescent to flaring. Through chi-square-minimization we model eight simultaneous SED datasets with a one-zone Synchrotron-Self-Compton (SSC) model, and examine how model parameters vary with source activity. The emerging variability pattern of Mrk 501 is complex, with the Compton component arising from gamma-electron scatterings that sometimes are (mostly) Thomson and sometimes (mostly) extreme Klein-Nishina. This can be seen from the variation of the Compton to synchrotron peak distance according to source state. The underlying electron spectra are faint/soft in quiescent states and bright/hard in flaring states. A comparison with Mrk 421 suggests that the typical values of the SSC parameters are different in the two sources: however, in both jets the energy density is particle dominated in all states.

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Nijil Mankuzhiyil, Stefano Ansoldi, Massimo Persic, Elizabeth Rivers, Richard Rothschild, Fabrizio Tavecchio. 2012-05-23. Emitting electrons and source activity in Markarian 501. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/753/2/154

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