EPJ Web of Conferences 61, 05003 (2013)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20136105003

Leptonic and Hadronic Modeling of Fermi-Detected Blazars

Spectral Energy Distribution Modeling and High-Energy Polarization Predictions

¹ Centre for Space Research, North-West University, Potchefstroom, 2531, South Africa
² Astrophysical Institute, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, Athens OH 45701, USA
³ Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria

^a e-mail: Markus.Bottcher@nwu.ac.za
^b e-mail: Anita.Reimer@uibk.ac.at
^c e-mail: zhangh@phy.ohiou.edu

Published online: 9 December 2013

Abstract

We describe new implementations of leptonic and hadronic models for the broadband emission from relativistic jets in AGN in a temporary steady state. The new model implementations are used to fit snap-shot spectral energy distributions of a representative set of Fermi-LAT detected blazars from the first LAT AGN catalogue. We find that the leptonic model is capable of producing acceptable fits to the SEDs of almost all blazars with reasonable parameters close to equipartition between the magnetic field and the relativistic electron population. If charge neutrality in leptonic models is provided by cold protons, our fits indicate that the kinetic energy carried by the jet should be dominated by protons. We also find satisfactory representations of the snapshot SEDs of most blazars in our sample with the hadronic model presented here. All of our hadronic model fits require powers in relativistic protons in the range 10⁴⁷ – 10⁴⁹ erg/s. As a potential way to distinguish between the leptonic and hadronic high-energy emission models considered here, we suggest diagnostics based on the predicted X-ray and γ-ray polarization, which are drastically different for the two types of models.