Particle acceleration in shock waves of young supernova remnants

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen P. Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Particle Acceleration ◽  
Shock Waves ◽  
Supernova Remnants

scholarly journals Shock Waves, Particle Acceleration and Non-Thermal Emission

1988 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 309-324
Author(s):  
R.D. Blandford
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Simulation ◽  
Particle Acceleration ◽  
Cosmic Rays ◽  
Shock Waves ◽  
Supernova Remnants ◽  
Thermal Emission ◽  
Interplanetary Shock ◽  
Galactic Cosmic Rays ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Shock Fronts

AbstractSome recent developments in the theory of particle acceleration at supernova shock fronts are reviewed and the confrontation of this theory with measurements of galactic cosmic rays and observations of supernova remnants is discussed. Supernova shock waves are able to account for the energetics, spectrum and composition of galactic cosmic rays, though it remains difficult to understand acceleration of ∼ 105 GeV particles. Recent developments in the analysis of interplanetary shock waves and in the numerical simulation of quasi-parallel shocks are encouraging. Interpretations of different categories of remnants are reviewed and a speculative interpretation of the optical companion to SN1987a is discussed.

scholarly journals Relativistic Particle Acceleration in Plerions

1994 ◽  
Vol 142 ◽  
pp. 797-806
Author(s):  
Jonathan Arons ◽  
Marco Tavani
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Particle Acceleration ◽  
Shock Waves ◽  
Shock Front ◽  
Heavy Ions ◽  
Surface Brightness ◽  
Crab Nebula ◽  
Electrons And Positrons ◽  
The Crab Nebula ◽  
The Magnetic Field

AbstractWe discuss recent research on the structure and particle acceleration properties of relativistic shock waves in which the magnetic field is transverse to the flow direction in the upstream medium, and whose composition is either pure electrons and positrons or primarily electrons and positrons with an admixture of heavy ions. Particle-in-cell simulation techniques as well as analytic theory have been used to show that such shocks in pure pair plasmas are fully thermalized—the downstream particle spectra are relativistic Maxwellians at the temperature expected from the jump conditions. On the other hand, shocks containing heavy ions which are a minority constituent by number but which carry most of the energy density in the upstream medium do put ~20% of the flow energy into a nonthermal population of pairs downstream, whose distribution in energy space is N(E) ∝ E−2, where N(E)dE is the number of particles with energy between E and E + dE.The mechanism of thermalization and particle acceleration is found to be synchrotron maser activity in the shock front, stimulated by the quasi-coherent gyration of the whole particle population as the plasma flowing into the shock reflects from the magnetic field in the shock front. The synchrotron maser modes radiated by the heavy ions are absorbed by the pairs at their (relativistic) cyclotron frequencies, allowing the maximum energy achievable by the pairs to be γ±m±c2 = mic2γ1/Zi, where γ1 is the Lorentz factor of the upstream flow and Zi, is the atomic number of the ions. The shock’s spatial structure is shown to contain a series of “overshoots” in the magnetic field, regions where the gyrating heavy ions compress the magnetic field to levels in excess of the eventual downstream value.This shock model is applied to an interpretation of the structure of the inner regions of the Crab Nebula, in particular to the “wisps,” surface brightness enhancements near the pulsar. We argue that these surface brightness enhancements are the regions of magnetic overshoot, which appear brighter because the small Larmor radius pairs are compressed and radiate more efficiently in the regions of more intense magnetic field. This interpretation suggests that the structure of the shock terminating the pulsar’s wind in the Crab Nebula is spatially resolved, and allows one to measure γ1, and a number of other properties of the pulsar’s wind. We also discuss applications of the shock theory to the termination shocks of the winds from rotation-powered pulsars embedded in compact binaries. We show that this model adequately accounts for (and indeed predicted) the recently discovered X-ray flux from PSR 1957+20, and we discuss several other applications to other examples of these systems.Subject headings: acceleration of particles — ISM: individual (Crab Nebula) — relativity — shock waves

scholarly journals GALACTIC AND EXTRAGALACTIC SUPERNOVA REMNANTS AS SITES OF PARTICLE ACCELERATION

2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (A) ◽  
pp. 612-616
Author(s):  
Manami Sasaki
Keyword(s):  
Particle Acceleration ◽  
Supernova Remnants ◽  
Supernova Remnant ◽  
Strong Shock ◽  
Cosmic Ray ◽  
Galactic Cosmic Rays ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Basic Physics ◽  
Nearby Galaxies ◽  
Radiation Processes

Supernova remnants, owing to their strong shock waves, are likely sources of Galactic cosmic rays. Studies of supernova remnants in X-rays and gamma rays provide us with new insights into the acceleration of particles to high energies. This paper reviews the basic physics of supernova remnant shocks and associated particle acceleration and radiation processes. In addition, the study of supernova remnant populations in nearby galaxies and the implications for Galactic cosmic ray distribution are discussed.

scholarly journals High-energy emission from transients

2013 ◽  
Vol 371 (1992) ◽  
pp. 20120279 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Hinton ◽  
R. L. C. Starling
Keyword(s):  
Particle Acceleration ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Supernova Remnants ◽  
Gamma Ray ◽  
Experimental Situation ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Galactic Cosmic Rays ◽  
Time Variable ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cosmic Explosions

Cosmic explosions dissipate energy into their surroundings on a very wide range of time scales: producing shock waves and associated particle acceleration. The historical culprits for the acceleration of the bulk of Galactic cosmic rays are supernova remnants: explosions on approximately 10 4 year time scales. Increasingly, however, time-variable emission points to rapid and efficient particle acceleration in a range of different astrophysical systems. Gamma-ray bursts have the shortest time scales, with inferred bulk Lorentz factors of approximately 1000 and photons emitted beyond 100 GeV, but active galaxies, pulsar wind nebulae and colliding stellar winds are all now associated with time-variable emission at approximately teraelectron volt energies. Cosmic photons and neutrinos at these energies offer a powerful probe of the underlying physical mechanisms of cosmic explosions, and a tool for exploring fundamental physics with these systems. Here, we discuss the motivations for high-energy observations of transients, the current experimental situation, and the prospects for the next decade, with particular reference to the major next-generation high-energy observatory, the Cherenkov Telescope Array.

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