2008/06/09 by Jian-Min Wang
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Compton scattering #Electron #Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope #Fermi acceleration #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Lorentz factor #Millimeter #Quasar #Radiative transfer #Synchrotron #Synchrotron radiation #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/590928
4 emulateapj.sty page with one Figure and one Table. Accepted by the ApJ Letters
arxiv created 2008/06/09 · openalex publication_date 2008/07/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Red quasars are a population characterized by significant extinction in UV, which could be explained by absorption of dusty gas on a scale of a few kpc. We show that the enhanced radiation pressure drives the dusty gas to supersonically expand and produces shocks. The shocks energize electrons to be relativistic via the first Fermi acceleration. As a balance of shock acceleration and synchrotron emission and inverse Compton scattering, the maximum Lorentz factor of the electrons reaches ~10 6 . The shocked interstellar medium appears as extended multiwavelength fuzz, in which synchrotron emission from the electrons peaks at near-infrared or UV bands and inverse Compton scattering around 1.0 GeV-0.1 TeV. Future multiwavelength images of the fuzz would provide new clues to study the details of radiative feedback if red quasars are a certain phase in the evolutionary chains of galaxies.