Decelerating Flows in TeV Blazars

Abstract

The peak of the de-absorbed energy distribution of the TeV emitting BLs can reach values up to ~10 TeV. In the context of SSC models of relativistic uniformly moving blobs of plasma, such high energy peak emission can be reproduced only by assuming Doppler factors delta ~ 50. However, such high values strongly disagree with the unification of FR I radio galaxies and BLs. Additionally, the recent detections of slow, possibly sub-luminal velocities in the sub-pc scale jets of the TeV BLS MKN 421 and MKN 501 suggest that the jets in these sources decelerate very early to mildly relativistic velocities (Gamma \~ a few). Here, we examine the possibility that the relativistic flow in the TeV BLs decelerates lognitudinally. In this case, modest Lorentz factors (Gamma~15), decelerating down to values compatible with the recent interferometric observations, can reproduce the ~ few TeV peak energy of these sources. Furthermore, such decelerating flows naturally reproduce the observed broadband BL-FR I luminosity ratios.