Abstract
Diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) at relativistic shocks is very likely to be an important acceleration mechanism in various astrophysical jet sources, including radio-loud AGN and GRBs. We here summarize recent results of Monte-Carlo simulations of DSA at relativistic shocks. Results are presented for situations with various shock obliquities, including superluminal regimes. We show that the spectral index of the resulting nonthermal particle distributions and the fraction of thermal particles accelerated to non-thermal energies, depend sensitively on the particles' mean free path to pitch angle scattering, and the shock obliquity. We then investigate self-consistently the radiative (synchrotron + Compton) signatures of the resulting thermal + nonthermal particle distributions. We demonstrate that a substantial thermal pool of particles may produce a spectral feature reminiscent of the Big Blue Bump observed in the SEDs of several blazars, via the bulk Compton mechanism, highlighting results for the BL Lac object AO 0235+164.
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