Radiative Processes

p. 1

AGN-3: HR-2007

Overview
Hot gas radiates
Continuum emission
Thermal emission / black-body radiation (RL 1.5)
Bremsstrahlung (free-free) (KN 4.5)
Synchrotron radiation (KN 3.2-3.4, 3.5,3.6)
Thomson scattering (KN 4.1)
Compton and inverse compton scattering (KN 4.2)
Pair production/annihilation radiation
Line emission
bound-bound; bound-free
If gas is optically thick: Absorption
Here: Continuum emission
Plus: the torus contains dust particles with a range of sizes and temperatures
that emit (modified) black body radiation
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Black-body radiation
Q: Is the BB spectrum modified if the black box is painted blue?
Thermal emission of optically thick gas
a. Rayleigh-Jeans limit: (radio regime)
b. Wien limit:
c. Monotonicity with temperature: of two black body curve the one with the
higher temperature lies entirely above the other
d. Wien displacement law: peak frequency/wavelength shifts linearly with T

(Note:

e. Total Power emitted (Stephans law):

P= A T4 (A: area)

This also defines the effective temperature as the temperature Teff that gives a
total emitted power equivalent to the total power observed.
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Bremsstrahlung or free-free emission

Braking radiation
Potentially contributes to the production of X-ray and -ray continuum spectra
Radiation by charge accelerating in field of other charge
Dominant process: electron-ion interaction

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Thermal Bremsstrahlung (KN 4.5)

Calculate energy emitted by a single electron with a velocity v deflected by

the electric field of a charge Z
Consider hot gas with electrons having a Maxwell-Boltzman velocity
distribution
Calculate the summed radiation for the ensemble
Result: energy emitted per unit volume of the gas per unit time (RL79)

ne, ni electron and ion density

Z electronic charge

velocity averaged Gaunt factor

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RL p.
161

p. 7

For a hydrogen plasma, integrating over all frequencies

Where

is the frequency averaged Gaunt factor and in the

Thermal energy gas per unit volume

Cooling time

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Relativistic or non-thermal bremsstrahlung

In the regime where

(T~6 109 or 500 keV)

Similar calculation as for thermal brehmsstrahlung:

formula for emission of a single election
distribution of particle velocities
summed radiation of the particle ensemble using the available Gaunt factors
Gaunt factors and resulting expressions for the emissivity (K p. 205--206) are
available for relativistic bremsstrahlung due to:
electron-electron
positron-positron
electron - positron
Note that the radiation from ions can be neglected due to their high mass
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Assignment - one page max !

1. Consider a (very unrealistic) region of gas associated with a cluster of

galaxies with a diameter of 1 Mpc, a temperature of 107 K and a
density of 0.1 cm3. What would be the cooling time and total luminosity
due to Bremsstrahlung?
2. If the cooling time is then compared to the age of the universe, what is
the conclusion?
3. How does the luminosity compare to luminous quasars?

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Synchrotron radiation
Radiation from relativistic particles moving in a B-field
RL 6; KN 3

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Radiation from a single accelerated charge

R0

Angular dependence of
radiation from a accelerated
charged particle (RL3.3)
Polar diagram is a dipole:

with d dipole moment

Emission is polarized with
Erad along the projected
acceleration vector

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Non relativistic case:

Lorentz Force equation

Relativistic case:

F=-e (v x B)

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Synchrotron radiation
Relativistic particle, moving at pitch angle to B-field: (RL $ 6; KN $ 3; K $ 9.2)
- No radiation when =0
- Strongly forward beamed when 0
- Polarized
- Contribution by electrons dominates

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Gyration frequency

When 1 : cyclotron emission

When >1 : synchrotron emission
Radiation is beamed in the velocity direction and within in a cone of with halfangle 1/
The width of the pulse is given by the time taken by the cone to sweep across
the line of sight, which is for the highly relativistic case:

Ensemble of pulses is quasi continuous and peaks at critical frequency c

(KN 3.13)
With energy emitted per unit time:
with E: energy electron
And the function F defined as
the modified Bessel function of order 5/3

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 Total emitted power by one electron

Note that P m-2 : hence radiation by protons can be neglected

Averaging over pitch angle :

(KN-3.10)

With T Thomson scattering cross section

UB = B2/(8) energy density of magnetic field

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Radio synchrotron spectrum from an ensemble of electrons

Power emitted by the electrons as a function of the frequency of the emitted
radiation is given by:
Power law distribution for the number density of electrons as a function of
energy can be produced in a variety of ways, including acceleration through
shocks

General result
In the case of extended, transparent radio sources the observed range of
spectral indices 0.5< < 1, leads to 2 < p < 3.

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p. 19

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Radiation losses
A radiating electron loses energy at a rate
Time taken by the electron to loose half its energy:

so high energy electrons cool fastest

In practical units and using the expression for the critical frequency c

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p. 21

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Polarization

B is magnetic field
projected on plane of sky
P synchrotron power emitted
perpendicular to B
B|| ...
Synchrotron radiation of ensemble
of particles with isotropic distribution
of angles is linearly polarized
General result for degree of polarization
with

a dimensionless function (e.g., KN $ 3.4; K eq. 9.16)

For power-law distribution

so degree of polarization can be larger than 50%

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Optically thick emission (self-absorption)

Photon can be absorbed by electrons in B-field
If source is optically thick: intensity = source function
This leads to (K 9.34)

K eq. (9.29) gives A(p) for isotropic pitch angle distribution and power-law
electron distribution; see also KN $ 3.5.1

Relation between peak, magnetic field and flux (KN 3.56)

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Radio source energetics (KN3.6)

For a radio source of volume V, the total energy in
electrons is:

Using KN-3.10 and =1, the total synchrotron

luminosity is:

Using definition c (KN 3.13), and p=2 +1

with A only a function of spectral

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 The total particle energy Up = a Ue with a>1

The total energy of the source is sum of particle
and magnetic energy
The total energy is minimized when

defines the equipartition field

The total energy for the equipartition value of the

magnetic field

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Total energy mildly dependent on

Uncertainty radio source size
Cutoff energies electron distributions
Energy in the different kind of galaxies

For radio galaxies:

-6

-4

Utot in the range 1057 - 1061 with Beq 10 - 10 G

Total pressure

Minimum pressure using the minimum energy condition

(Later: how the energy input of radio AGN impacts on the

formation and evolution of massive galaxies)
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14

Assignment - one page max !

1. Consider a (very unrealistic) region of gas associated with a cluster of

galaxies with a diameter of 1 Mpc, a temperature of 107 K and a
density of 0.1 cm3. What would be the cooling time and total luminosity
due to Bremsstrahlung?
2. If the cooling time is then compared to the age of the universe, what is
the conclusion?
3. How does the luminosity compare to luminous quasars?
4. Derive
starting from eq 3.54 in KN
5. The spectra of Giga Hertz Peaked Spectrum (GPS) radio galaxies
peak at around 1 GHz. What would be a typical size for a GPS radio
galaxies if it is at z=0.5?

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Scattering of a photon by an
electron
1. low energies h << mc2
Thomson scattering
2. high energies h ~ mc2
Compton scattering.
3. in scattering process photon
gains energy
inverse Compton scattering

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Thomson scattering
Scattering of an electromagnetic wave incident
on an electron in the case h << mc2 = 511 keV
applicable for optical photons

Fully elastic: no change of photon energy

Total (Thomson) cross section
Differential cross section for unpolarized light
Resulting degree of polarization
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Compton scattering

In the scattering process energy is transferred from the photon to the electron
Compton scattering becomes important for X-rays, and dominates in gammaregime
A result (KN 4.2)

In the limit < mc2

this is Thomson scattering

Cross-section : Klein-Nishina
formula (KN eqs 4.6 & 4.7)

Drops to zero at large energies

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The variation of the Compton scattering cross-section with energy

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Inverse Compton scattering

When electron energy mec2 large momentum transfer to photon: inverse
Compton scattering
Photon may gain factor 2 in energy (< mec2)
General expression for the change of energy rather complex
The resulting spectrum depends on

luminosity and spectrum incoming radiation

energy distribution of relativistic electrons
number of scattering events
Energy balance between energy gained by the photons and lost by the electrons

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 n(): number density of photons of energy in laboratory

frame S
n(): number density of photons of energy in frame S
of electron
Assuming << mc2, then T can be used
Number of photons in energy range (,+ ) that are
scattered is cT n()d
The power of the scattered photons in frame S:

In the lab frame (RL, p. 199):

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For an isotropic distribution of photons, we can average

over incident angles:
With Uph the total energy density of the electromagnetic radiation

Net effect scattered light minus energy incident on electron per unit
time: (use 2-1 =2 2)

Recall:

So that

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Repeated scattering
In a thermal scattering medium with T << mc2/k (6 109 K) electrons are non-relativistic
and the average energy exchange per scattering between a photon and an electron
is (RL79):

When

energy flows from the thermal electrons to photons

When

energy flows from the photons to the thermal electrons

At the componization temperature

there is equilibrium

The Comptonization parameter y indicates whether a photon will significantly change its
energy when crossing the medium (KN $ 4.3)
y = { average fractional energy change per scattering} { mean number of scatterings}
y > 1 spectrum altered

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Compton scattering of a photon in a mildly optically thick region.

The photon begins at the central dot and executes a random walk
until it reaches the edge of the cloud and escapes. A shorter and a
longer random walk are shown.
{ mean number of scatterings}

= 2 ( >> 1)
= ( << 1)

(RL. PAGE 36, 210, KN 4.3)

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Optical depth effects (KN, p. 73, RL p36-39)

For a homogeneous medium, the attenuation of the intensity I is:

I() = I(,0) exp(-), =n L
With L distance traveled

Mean free path : l = 1 / (n )

Number of scattering events before photons escape a medium with size L :

Low optical depth
Nsc =1-exp(-) n

For high optical depth

Random walk
Nsc 2

Taken together

Time spend in a medium of size L

Nsc (1+)

Low optical depth: tnsc = L/c

High optical depth: tsc = Nsc l / c

Ratio of the two times spend in the medium

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Assignment
1. Derive that the number of scatterings before escape
Nsc is given by: Nsc 2
(See KN 4.3 or RL 1.7)

2. Derive

Starting from

Following instruction on page 79 of KN

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Assuming

After dN scatterings:

Ratio change in energy to total energy

Integrating gives the for the energy of the photon after N scatterings

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Relativistic case (KN 4.3.2)

the average energy exchange per scattering between a photon and an

electron is:

Resulting in a componization parameter:

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Figure illustrates strong comptonisation of a

bremsstrahlung spectrum in an optically thick,
non-relativistic medium. The bremsstrahlung
spectrum dominates at low frequency and
shows a characteristic self-absorption region
and a flat region. At higher frequency, photons
have been multiply scattered via the Compton
process so that a Wien spectrum forms.
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Synchrotron self-Compton emission

Synchrotron photons can be Compton scattered by electrons that produce
them
-

This boosts photons with energy to 2,

And electrons loose energy through
(i) Synchrotron emission
(ii) Compton scattering

Compton catastrophe:
In compact high luminosity sources, as a result of multiple up-scattering
the electron will lose their energy very rapidly to high energy photons
produces catastrophic energy losses of electrons, so that source is
quenched

- This occurs at brightness temperatures Tb1012 K, and indeed

no higher Tb observed
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Compton catastrophy

Energy density due to synchrotron emission of a source with radius r

and luminosity Ls

The luminosity of such a source at a distance D, subtending an , is

related to the flux F:

Using KN 4-14 & UB = B2 / 8

Compton scattering dominates in compact sources with high surface

brightness, and those are the sources that are synchrotron selfabsorbed. Then:
where a cutoff frequency

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Rewrite, using

in terms of brightness temperature TB

Self-absorption frequency in terms of energy E=kT
Condition for self absorption T ~ TB

When T > 1012, Lc dominates, and rapid Compton cooling sets in:
the Compton catastrophe.
Sources with intrinsic (=unbeamed) brightness temperatures
exceeding 1012 K not observed

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Assignment
1. Derive that the number of scatterings before escpe Nsc
is given by: Nsc 2
(See KN 4.3 or RL 1.7)

2. Derive

Starting from

Following instruction on page 79 of KN

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Pair production and annihilation (KN 4.6.2)

If electron have enough energy to produce X-rays, they have (almost)
enough energy to make electron/positron pairs e
Krolik $ 8.4 gives cross-sections for pair production
- photon + photon pair
- electron + photon electron + pair
- nucleus + photon nucleus + pair
Inverse process: pair annihilation -> two photons (with opposite spins)
Pairs complicate computation of equilibria
- Pairs may escape easily energy loss
- Calculation non-linear

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Consider a region filled with energetic photons and relativisitic particles, then the
steady state equation (KN 4.6.4):

With n(x):

N():

number density of photons of energy x = / (me/c2)

rate of production of soft photons (in for example accretion disk)
rate of production due to pair annihilation
rate of production due to Compton scattering of nonthermal and thermal electrons
rate of removal by Compton scattering against nonthermal electrons with optical depth CN
+ rate removal of photons due to photon-photon
interactions/pair creation with optical depth
rate of escape from region
number density of relativistic particles with energy
rate of change due to non-thermal compton scattering
rate of pair creation
rate of particle injection
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Example spectra produced by

pair processing
Input
BB UV photons kT = 5.1 eV
relativistic electrons with
= 7.5 103
Compactness parameter
l Luminosity / size
measure optical depth s
Broken line: spectrum
produced in the absence of
pairs
Solid line: modification due to
pair production with the net
result of an increase of X-ray
energy at the cost of of the
rays
(From Svensson 1994)
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Literature

Kembhavi & Narlikar 3 and 4

Robson, 4
Krolik, 8.2-8.5,8.7,9.2
Radiative Processes in Astrophysics: Rybicki G., Lightman A.P., 1979

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