Automatic Quenching of High-Energy γ-Ray Sources by Synchrotron Photons | Zendy

Ł. Stawarz | Zendy; J. G. Kirk | Zendy

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Automatic Quenching of High-Energy γ-Ray Sources by Synchrotron Photons

Author(s) -

Ł. Stawarz,

J. G. Kirk

Publication year - 2007

Publication title -

the astrophysical journal

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.376

H-Index - 489

eISSN - 1538-4357

pISSN - 0004-637X

DOI - 10.1086/518417

Subject(s) - physics , photon , annihilation , synchrotron radiation , synchrotron , pair production , luminosity , quenching (fluorescence) , plasma , radiation , optics , atomic physics , nuclear physics , astrophysics , galaxy , fluorescence

We investigate a magnetized plasma in which injected high energy gamma-raysannihilate on a soft photon field, that is provided by the synchrotronradiation of the created pairs. For a very wide range of magnetic fields, thisprocess involves gamma-rays between 0.3 GeV and 30 TeV. We derive a simpledynamical system for this process, analyze its stability to runaway productionof soft photons and paris, and find conditions for it to automatically quenchby reaching a steady state with an optical depth to photon-photon annihilationlarger than unity. We discuss applications to broad-band gamma-ray emitters, inparticular supermassive black holes. Automatic quenching limits the gamma-rayluminosity of these objects and predicts substantial pair loading of the jetsof less active sources.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures included. Revised version, accepted for publication in ApJ

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