Locating the GeV emission region in the jets of blazars from months time-scale multiwavelength outbursts

Abstract

ABSTRACT It is well known that the γ-ray emission in blazars originates in the relativistic jet pointed at the observers. However, it is not clear whether the exact location of the GeV emission is less than a parsec (pc) from the central engine, such that it may receive sufficient amount of photons from the broad-line region (BLR) or farther out at 1–100 pc range. The former assumption has been successfully used to model the spectral energy distribution of many blazars. However, simultaneous detection of TeV γ-rays along with GeV outbursts in some cases indicate that the emission region must be outside the BLR. In addition, GeV outbursts have sometimes been observed to be simultaneous with the passing of a disturbance through the so-called ‘very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) core’, which is located tens of pc away from the central engine. Hence, the exact location of γ-ray emission remains ambiguous. Here we present a method that we have developed to constrain the location of the emission region. We identify simultaneous months time-scale GeV and optical outbursts in the light curves spanning over 8 yr of a sample of 11 blazars. Using theoretical jet emission models we show that the energy ratio of simultaneous optical and GeV outbursts is strongly dependent on the location of the emission region. Comparing the energy dissipation of the observed multiwavelength outbursts and that of the simulated flares in our theoretical model, we find that most of the above outbursts originate beyond the BLR at approximately a few pc from the central engine.