The detection of several radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope hints at the existence of a rare, new class of γ-ray emitting active galactic nuclei with low black hole masses. Like flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), their γ-ray emission is thought to be produced via the external Compton mechanism whereby relativistic jet electrons upscatter a photon field external to the jet, e.g. from the accretion disc, broad line region (BLR) and dusty torus, to higher energies. Here we study the origin of the γ-ray emission in the lowest-redshift candidate among the currently-known γ-ray emitting NLS1s, 1H 0323+342, and take a new approach. We observationally constrain the external photon field using quasisimultaneous near-IR, optical and X-ray spectroscopy. Applying a one-zone leptonic jet model, we simulate the range of jet parameters for which this photon field, when Compton scattered to higher energies, can explain the γ-ray emission. We find that the site of the γ-ray emission lies well within the BLR and that the seed photons mainly originate from the accretion disc. The jet power that we determine, 1.0 × 10 45 erg s −1 , is approximately half the accretion disc luminosity. We show that this object is not simply a low-mass FSRQ, its jet is intrinsically less powerful than predicted by scaling a typical FSRQ jet by black hole mass and accretion rate. That γ-ray emitting NLS1s appear to host underpowered jets may go some way to explaining why so few have been detected to date.

Prior to the Fermi-LAT era, only two classes of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) were thought to harbor relativistic jets that radiate up to gamma-ray energies: blazars and radio galaxies. The detection of variable gamma-ray emission from Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1) galaxies has put them on the spotlight as a new class of gamma-ray emitting AGN. In this respect, gamma-ray emitting NLSy1s seem to be situated between blazars (dominated by non-thermal emission) and Seyferts (accretion disc dominated). In this work, we model the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) of two gamma-loud NLSy1s, 1H 0323+342 and B2 0954+25A, during quiescent and flaring episodes via a multi-component radiative model that features a relativistic jet and external photon fields from the torus, disc, corona and Broad Line Region (BLR). We find that the interpretation of the high-energy emission of jetted NLSy1s requires taking into account Inverse Compton emission from particles in the relativistic jet that interact with external photon fields. Minimal changes are applied to the model parameters to transition from average to flaring states. In this scenario, the observed variability is explained mainly by means of changes in the jet density and Doppler factor.