Non-variable cosmologically distant gamma-ray emitters as a propagation imprint of ultra-high-energy protons

Prosekin, Anton; Kelner, S. R.; Aharonian, F.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201117231

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Their size, volume filling factor, and geometry are uncertain, and observations provide only the upper limits. Models can accommodate a variety of field strengths in these fila- [33]. The gammaray absorption mean free path λγγ is shown for the EBL model of Ref.…”

Section: Rectilinear Propagation and Deflectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

TeV gamma rays from blazars beyondz=1?

et al. 2013

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At TeV energies, the gamma-ray horizon of the universe is limited to redshifts z ≪ 1, and, therefore, any observation of TeV radiation from a source located beyond z = 1 would call for a revision of the standard paradigm. While robust observational evidence for TeV sources at redshifts z ≥ 1 is lacking at present, the growing number of TeV blazars with redshifts as large as z ≃ 0.5 suggests the possibility that the standard blazar models may have to be reconsidered. We show that TeV gamma rays can be observed even from a source at z ≥ 1, if the observed gamma rays are secondary photons produced in interactions of high-energy protons originating from the blazar jet and propagating over cosmological distances almost rectilinearly. This mechanism was initially proposed as a possible explanation for the TeV gamma rays observed from blazars with redshifts z ∼ 0.2, for which some other explanations were possible. For TeV gamma-ray radiation detected from a blazar with z ≥ 1, this model would provide the only viable interpretation consistent with conventional physics. It would also have far-reaching astronomical and cosmological ramifications. In particular, this interpretation would imply that extragalactic magnetic fields along the line of sight are very weak, in the range 10 −17 G < B < 10 −14 G, assuming random fields with a correlation length of 1 Mpc, and that acceleration of E ≥ 10 17 eV protons in the jets of active galactic nuclei can be very effective.

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Section: Rectilinear Propagation and Deflectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

TeV gamma rays from blazars beyondz=1?

et al. 2013

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“…The calculations are based on the formalism developed in Ref. [33]. The gammaray absorption mean free path λγγ is shown for the EBL model of Ref.…”

Section: Rectilinear Propagation and Deflectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mean free paths of photons and protons as a function of energy and the source redshift. The calculations are based on the formalism developed in Ref [33]…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

TeV gamma rays from blazars beyond z=1?

Aharonian,

Essey,

Kusenko

et al. 2012

Preprint

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“…The detectability of such signatures in a general framework has been studied analytically and by Monte-Carlo (concentrating on the synchrotron emission and without including the electromagnetic cascade component) by Gabici & Aharonian (2005), Gabici & Aharonian (2007), and Kotera et al (2010). Prosekin et al (2011) studied analytically the synchrotron signature for UHECR sources located at high redshifts, when the energy conversion from protons to secondary particles was significantly more effective because of the denser and more energetic CMB in the past. Murase (2012) and Dermer et al (2012) investigated the highly variable synchrotron cascade emission, which can be caused by beamed UHE neutrals including photons and neutrons, taking into account the inverse Compton cascade component.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchrotron pair halo and echo emission from blazars in the cosmic web: application to extreme TeV blazars

Oikonomou

Murase

Kotera

2014

A&A

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High frequency peaked, high redshift blazars, are extreme in the sense that their spectrum is particularly hard and peaks at TeV energies. Standard leptonic scenarios require peculiar source parameters and/or a special setup in order to account for these observations. Electromagnetic cascades seeded by ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) in the intergalactic medium have also been invoked, assuming a very low intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF). Here we study the synchrotron emission of UHECR secondaries produced in blazars located in magnetised environments, and show that it can provide an alternative explanation to these challenged channels, for sources embedded in structured regions with magnetic field strengths of the order of 10 −7 G. To demonstrate this, we focus on three extreme blazars: 1ES 0229+200, RGB J0710+591, and 1ES 1218+304. We model the expected gamma-ray signal from these sources through a combination of numerical Monte Carlo simulations and solving the kinetic equations of the particles in our simulations, and explore the UHECR source and intergalactic medium parameter space to test the robustness of the emission. We show that the generated synchrotron-pair halo and echo flux at the peak energy is not sensitive to variations in the overall IGMF strength. This signal is unavoidable in contrast to the inverse Compton-pair halo and echo intensity, which is appealing in view of the large uncertainties on the IGMF in voids of large scale structure. It is also shown that the variability of blazar gamma-ray emission can be accommodated by the synchrotron emission of secondary products of UHE neutral beams if these are emitted by UHECR accelerators inside magnetised regions.

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Non-variable cosmologically distant gamma-ray emitters as a propagation imprint of ultra-high-energy protons

Cited by 4 publications

References 22 publications

TeV gamma rays from blazars beyondz=1?

TeV gamma rays from blazars beyondz=1?

TeV gamma rays from blazars beyond z=1?

Synchrotron pair halo and echo emission from blazars in the cosmic web: application to extreme TeV blazars

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