An inhomogeneous lepto-hadronic model for the radiation of relativistic jets: Application to XTE J1118+480

Conceptually reconstructing the physical conditions in relativistic jets, given the observed electromagnetic spectrum, is a complex inverse problem. The authors aim to improve our understanding of the mechanisms operating in relativistic jets by modeling their broadband electromagnetic spectrum. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) 2012-02, Vol.538, p.1-1
Main Authors: Vila, G S, Romero, G E, Casco, N A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Broadband
Emission
Jets
Mathematical models
Microquasars
Photons
Spectral emissivity
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Summary:Conceptually reconstructing the physical conditions in relativistic jets, given the observed electromagnetic spectrum, is a complex inverse problem. The authors aim to improve our understanding of the mechanisms operating in relativistic jets by modeling their broadband electromagnetic spectrum. They develop an inhomogeneous jet model where the injection of relativistic primary and secondary particles takes place in a spatially extended region. They calculate the contribution of all particles species to the jet emissivity by several radiative processes, and assess the effect of gamma-ray absorption in internal and external photon fields. A number of specific models with different parameters are computed to explore the possibilities of this scenario. They obtain a variety of spectral shapes depending on the model parameters, some of them predicting significant gamma-ray emission. The observed broadband spectrum of the low-mass microquasar XTE J1118+480 can be satisfactorily reproduced by the model.
ISSN:0004-6361
1432-0746