Extreme TeV blazars (ETBs) are active galactic nuclei with jets presumably pointing towards the observer having their intrinsic (compensated for the effect of γ-ray absorption on extragalactic background light photons) spectral energy distributions (SEDs) peaked at an energy in excess of 1 TeV. These sources typically reveal relatively weak and slow variability as well as higher frequency of the low-energy SED peak compared to other classes of blazars. It proved to be exceedingly hard to incorporate all these peculiar properties of ETBs into the framework of conventional γ-ray emission models. ETB physics have recently attracted great attention in the astrophysical community, underlying the importance of the development of self-consistent ETB emission model(s). We propose a new scenario for the formation of X-ray and γ-ray spectra of ETBs assuming that electromagnetic cascades develop in the infrared photon field surrounding the central blazar engine. This scenario does not invoke compact fast-moving sources of radiation (so-called “blobs”), in agreement with the apparent absence of fast and strong variability of ETBs. For the case of the extreme TeV blazar 1ES 0229+200 we propose a specific emission model in the framework of the considered scenario. We demonstrate that this model allows to obtain a good fit to the measured SED of 1ES 0229+200.
Nonthermal Radiation of the Extreme TeV Blazar 1ES 0229+200 from Electromagnetic Cascades on Infrared Photon Field