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Session 46 - Gamma-ray Sources & Diffuse Emission.
Display session, Tuesday, January 16
North Banquet Hall, Convention Center
We show that the radio-through-optical continuum emission in the \nu F_\nu spectra of blazars results from synchrotron emission by relativistic electrons in outflowing plasma jets, and that the high energy \gamma-ray continuum results from Compton scattering of photons originating outside the jet. We argue that the synchrotron self-Compton process is less important for \gamma-ray production on the basis of a compactness argument, and because radio galaxies are generally not observed in the > 100 MeV \gamma-ray regime. Different beaming factors for the synchrotron and Compton continuum components are presented, which depend in general on additional energy-loss processes of the emitting electrons. Quasi-simultaneous multiwavelength spectra for the blazars 3C 273 and 3C 279 are fit using a model where nonthermal electrons are promptly accelerated and lose energy through synchrotron, Compton, and Coulomb processes. We also consider time-variability predictions for this model, and compare with ASCA and Whipple observations of correlated X-ray and TeV \gamma-ray emission from Mrk 421.
