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Session: Cosmology and Relativistic Astrophysics

Name: Ms. Despina Karavola (National & Kapodistrian University of Athens)
Coauthors: No coauthors were included.
Type: Oral
Title: Gamma-rays from Synchrotron radiation of Bethe-Heitler pairs in Active Galactic Nuclei
Abstract:

Jets from Active Galactic Nuclei are considered to be efficient astrophysical particle accelerators, producing electromagnetic spectra that in most cases extend to the γ-ray regime. These spectra are usually modeled with the use of solely leptonic processes, such as electron synchrotron radiation and inverse Compton scattering. Even though the results are in agreement with the observational data, the nature of an acceleration mechanism able to create such energetic electrons remains an open question. We present an alternative to the latter by exploiting the energy reservoir provided to the proton population present in the jet, by the magnetic field. Highly relativistic protons can interact with low energy photons from the jet, so as to produce very energetic electron-positron pairs through a procedure known as Bethe-Heitler pair production. In this contribution we examine under which conditions the produced Bethe-Heitler pairs can emit γ-rays, thus relaxing the requirement of accelerating electrons to ultra-relativistic energies. Alongside, we were able to approximate the energy spectrum of the produced pairs by an analytical function, a quantity that otherwise should be calculated by the integration of the Bethe-Heitler cross section, a task which is computational expensive.