2006/10/27 by Markos Georganopoulos, Eric S. Perlman, Demosthenes Kazanas +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Compton scattering #Cosmic background radiation #Cosmic microwave background #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Electron #Photon #Population #Quasar #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #Synchrotron #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/510452
published as Astrophys.J.653:L5-L8,2006 · ApJ Letters, in press
arxiv created 2006/10/27 · openalex publication_date 2006/11/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The process responsible for the Chandra -detected X-ray emission from the large-scale jets of powerful quasars is a matter of ongoing debate. The two main contenders are external Compton scattering off the cosmic microwave background photons (EC/CMB) and synchrotron emission from a population of electrons separate from those producing the radio-IR emission. So far, no clear diagnostics have been presented to distinguish which of the two, if any, is the actual X-ray emission mechanism. Here we present such diagnostics based on a fundamental difference between these two models: the production of synchrotron X-rays requires multi-TeV electrons, while the EC/CMB model requires a cutoff in the electron energy distribution below TeV energies. This has significant implications for the γ-ray emission predicted by these two models, which can be tested through GeV and TeV observations of the nearby bright quasar 3C 273. We show how existing and future GeV and TeV observations can confirm or refute one or both of the above hypotheses.