The nature of γ-ray loud narrow-line Seyfert i galaxies PKS 1502+036 and PKS 2004-447

Abstract

Variable γ-ray emission has been discovered in five radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1) galaxies by the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. This has clearly demonstrated that these NLSy1 galaxies do have relativistic jets similar to two other cases of γ-ray-emitting active galactic nuclei (AGNs), namely, blazars and radio galaxies. We present here our results on the multi-band analysis of two γ-ray-emitting NLSy1 galaxies, namely, PKS 1502+036 (z = 0.409) and PKS 2004-447 (z = 0.240), using archival data. We generate multi-band long-term light curves of these sources, build their spectral energy distribution (SED), and model them using a one-zone leptonic model. They resemble more the SEDs of the flat spectrum radio quasar (FSRQ) class of AGNs. We then compare the SEDs of these two sources with two other Fermi-detected AGNs along the traditional blazar sequence, namely, the BL Lac Mrk 421 (z = 0.03) and the FSRQ 3C 454.3 (z = 0.86). The SEDs of both PKS 1502+036 and PKS 2004-447 are found to be intermediate to the SEDs of Mrk 421 and 3C 454.3. In the γ-ray spectral index versus γ-ray luminosity plane, both these NLSy1 galaxies occupy a distinct position, wherein they have luminosity between Mrk 421 and 3C 454.3; however, their steep γ-ray spectra are similar to 3C 454.3. Their Compton dominance as well as their X-ray spectral slope also lie between Mrk 421 and 3C 454.3. We argue that the physical properties of both PKS 1502+036 and PKS 2004-447 are generally similar to blazars and intermediate between FSRQs and BL Lac objects and these sources thus could fit into the traditional blazar sequence. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.