Modeling the Delayed Emission in the 2005 Mkn 501 Flare

Recently, the MAGIC collaboration reported evidence for a delay in the arrival times of photons of different energies during a γ-ray flare from the blazar Markarian 501 on 2005 July 9. We describe the observed delayed high-energy emission by applying a homogeneous synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model under the assumption that the blob containing relativistic electrons was observed in its acceleration phase. This modified SSC model predicts the appearance of a γ-ray flare first at lower energies and subsequently at higher energies. Based on the reported time delay of ∼ 240s between the flare observed at ∼ 190GeV and 2.7TeV, we predict a delay on the order of 1h if observed between 10GeV and 100GeV. Such delay timescales can be tested in the future by simultaneous flare observations with the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) and Cerenkov telescopes.