The power of blazar jets

Understand

We estimate the power of relativistic, extragalactic jets by modelling the spectral energy distribution of a large number of blazars.

• We adopt a simple one-zone, homogeneous, leptonic synchrotron and inverse Compton model, taking into account seed photons originating both locally in the jet and externally.
• The blazars under study have an often dominant high energy component, which, if interpreted as due to inverse Compton radiation, limits the value of the magnetic field within the emission region.
• As a consequence, the corresponding Poynting flux cannot be energetically dominant.