Differences of leptonic and hadronic radiation production in flaring blazars

Abstract

In order to distinguish the leptonic from the hadronic origin of the non-thermal emission of a flaring blazar, we present a semi-analytical model that describes the temporal development of the emergent particles (i.e., photons and neutrinos) based on their leptonic and hadronic origins, respectively. The approach starts with the transport equation of the injected relativistic particles and takes spatial diffusion and continuous energy losses into account. On the one hand, a relativistic electron pick-up is considered, which leads to synchrotron, as well as external Compton emission; and on the other hand, a relativistic proton pick-up, which results in high-energy photons and neutrinos by inelastic proton-proton collisions. The temporal development of the emergent photon and neutrino intensities of blazar flares in hadronic and leptonic interaction scenarios are calculated, given useful predictions of flare durations and time lags between photons of different wavelength and high-energy neutrinos. © 2012 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.