A SUZAKU X-RAY STUDY OF THE PARTICLE ACCELERATION PROCESSES IN THE RELATIVISTIC JET OF BLAZAR Mrk 421

Journal Article · Sun Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/722/1/358· OSTI ID:21464653

Garson, III, Alfred B; Krawczynski, Henric ^[1]

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1. Washington University in St. Louis, Physics Department and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, St. Louis, MO 63130 (United States)

We report on the findings of a 364 ks observation of the BL LAC object Mrk 421 with the X-ray observatory Suzaku. The analysis in this paper uses fluxes and hardness ratios (HRs) in the broad energy range from 0.5 keV to 30 keV. During the course of the observation, the 0.5-30 keV flux decreased by a factor of {approx}2 and was accompanied by several large flares occurring on timescales of a few hours. We find that fitting a broken power model to spectra from isolated epochs during the observation describes the data well. Different flares exhibit different spectral and HR evolutions. The cumulative observational evidence indicates that the particle acceleration mechanism in the Mrk 421 jet produces electron energy distributions with a modest range of spectral indices and maximum energies. We argue that the short-timescale X-ray spectral variability in the flares can be attributed mostly to intrinsic changes in the acceleration process, dominating other influences such as fluctuations in the Doppler beaming factor, or radiative cooling in or outside the acceleration zone.

• OSTI ID: 21464653
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 722, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/722/1/358; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ACCELERATION
BL LACERTAE OBJECTS
ELECTRONS
ENERGY SPECTRA
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
X RADIATION
X-RAY GALAXIES
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
EVOLUTION
FERMIONS
GALAXIES
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LEPTONS
RADIATIONS
SPECTRA