2003/02/04 by Alexander K. Konopelko, A. Konopelko, Apostolos Mastichiadis +7 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Neutrino Physics Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/374593
published as Astrophys.J.597:851-859,2003 · 28 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal
arxiv created 2003/02/04 · openalex publication_date 2003/11/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
We discuss the results of modeling the TeV γ-ray spectra of two active galactic nuclei, Mrk 501 and Mrk 421, that have almost the same redshifts: z = 0.031 and 0.034, respectively. The effect of intergalactic γ-ray absorption is treated as an uncertainty in the measurement of the intrinsic spectrum. Although the objects differ, we obtain satisfactory fits for both of them in a synchrotron self-Compton scenario. Compared to previous models, our fits are characterized by higher values of the Doppler factor (δ ≥ 50) and an electron injection spectrum extending to higher energies (γ max ≥ 1.5 × 10 5 ). In the case of Mrk 421, the observed difference in spectral slope in X-rays and TeV γ-rays between the high and low states can be explained as a variation of a single parameter—the maximum energy γ max mc 2 at which electrons are injected.