Abstract We present a modified stratified jet model to interpret the observed spectral energy distributions of knots in the 3C 273 jet. Based on the hypothesis of the single index of the particle energy spectrum at injection and identical emission processes among all the knots, the observed difference of spectral shape among different 3C 273 knots can be understood as a manifestation of the deviation of the equivalent Doppler factor of stratified emission regions in an individual knot from a characteristic one. The summed spectral energy distributions of all ten knots in the 3C 273 jet can be well fitted by two components: a low-energy component (radio to optical) dominated by synchrotron radiation and a high-energy component (UV, X-ray and γ-ray) dominated by inverse Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background. This gives a consistent spectral index of α = 0.88 (Sν∝ν-α) and a characteristic Doppler factor of 7.4 . Assuming the average of the summed spectrum as the characteristic spectrum of each knot in the 3C 273 jet, we further get a distribution of Doppler factors. We discuss the possible implications of these results for the physical properties in the 3C 273 jet. Future GeV observations with GLAST could separate the -ray emission of 3C 273 from the large scale jet and the small scale jet (i.e. the core) through measuring the GeV spectrum.

Keywords galaxies: active — galaxies: individual (3C 273) — galaxies: jets — radiation mechanisms: non-thermal

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