THE EXTRAGALACTIC BACKGROUND LIGHT ABSORPTION FEATURE IN THE BLAZAR COMPONENT OF THE EXTRAGALACTIC GAMMA-RAY BACKGROUND

Journal Article · Thu Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/703/2/1939· OSTI ID:21371831

Venters, Tonia M ^[1]; Pavlidou, Vasiliki ^[2]

---

1. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
2. Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)

High-energy photons from cosmological emitters suffer attenuation due to pair production interactions with the extragalactic background light (EBL). The collective emission of any high-energy emitting cosmological population will exhibit an absorption feature at the highest energies. We calculate this absorption feature in the collective emission of blazars for various models of the blazar gamma-ray luminosity function (GLF) and the EBL. We find that models of the blazar GLF that predict higher relative contributions of high-redshift blazars to the blazar collective spectrum result in emission that is more susceptible to attenuation by the EBL, and hence result in more prominent absorption features, allowing for better differentiation amongst EBL models. We thus demonstrate that observations of such an absorption feature will contain information regarding both the blazar GLF and the EBL, and we discuss tests for EBL models and the blazar GLF that will become possible with upcoming Fermi observations.

• OSTI ID: 21371831
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 703; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ABSORPTION
BOSONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EMISSION
GALAXIES
GAMMA RADIATION
INTERACTIONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LUMINOSITY
MASSLESS PARTICLES
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PAIR PRODUCTION
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
PHOTONS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADIATIONS
RED SHIFT
SORPTION