Pair production and Compton scattering in compact sources and comparison to observations of active galactic nuclei

The authors determine the steady state particle and photon distributions under the assumption of continuous injection of relativistic electrons and low-energy photons throughout a spherical volume. Through inverse Compton scattering, the primary electrons produce γ-rays, which then produce electron-positron pairs. The pairs constitute a secondary electron injection, and the process continues, with each generation of pairs cooling down to subrelativistic energies before thermalizing and annihilating. The authors compute detailed emergent spectra for a wide range of parameters, and compare the results to the data from active galactic nuclei.