EMITTING ELECTRONS AND SOURCE ACTIVITY IN MARKARIAN 501
- INFN, I-34127 Trieste (Italy)
- Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California at San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0424 (United States)
- INAF-Brera, via E. Bianchi 46, I-23807 Merate (Italy)
We study the variation of the broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) of the BL Lac object Mrk 501 as a function of source activity, from quiescent to flaring. Through {chi}{sup 2}-minimization we model eight simultaneous SED data sets with a one-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model, and examine how model parameters vary with source activity. The emerging variability pattern of Mrk 501 is complex, with the Compton component arising from {gamma}-e scatterings that sometimes are (mostly) Thomson and sometimes (mostly) extreme Klein-Nishina. This can be seen from the variation of the Compton to synchrotron peak distance according to source state. The underlying electron spectra are faint/soft in quiescent states and bright/hard in flaring states. A comparison with Mrk 421 suggests that the typical values of the SSC parameters are different in the two sources: however, in both jets the energy density is particle-dominated in all states.
- OSTI ID:
- 22039371
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 753; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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