Klein-Nishina Effects on Optically Thin Synchrotron and Synchrotron Self-Compton Spectrum

Understand

We present analytic approximations to the optically thin synchrotron and synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) spectra when Klein-Nishina (KN) effects are important and pair production and external radiation fields can be neglected.

• This theory is useful for analytical treatment of radiation from astrophysical sources, such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), active galactic nuclei and pulsar wind nebula, where KN effects may be important.
• We consider a source with a continuous injection of relativistic electrons with a power-law energy distribution above some typical injection energy.
• We find that the synchrotron-SSC spectra can be described by a broken power-law, and provide analytic estimates for the break frequencies and power-law indices.