Kinetics of electron-positron pair plasmas using an adaptive Monte Carlo method
Abstract
A new algorithm for implementing the adaptive Monte Carlo method is given. It is used to solve the relativistic Boltzmann equations that describe the time evolution of a nonequilibrium electron-positron pair plasma containing high-energy photons and pairs. The collision kernels for the photons as well as pairs are constructed for Compton scattering, pair annihilation and creation, bremsstrahlung, and Bhabha & Moller scattering. For a homogeneous and isotropic plasma, analytical equilibrium solutions are obtained in terms of the initial conditions. For two non-equilibrium models, the time evolution of the photon and pair spectra is determined using the new method. The asymptotic numerical solutions are found to be in a good agreement with the analytical equilibrium states. Astrophysical applications of this scheme are discussed.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9702187,
title = {Kinetics of electron-positron pair plasmas using an adaptive Monte Carlo method},
author = {Ravi P. Pilla and Jacob Shaham},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9702187},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
43 pages, 7 postscript figures, to appear in the Astrophysical Journal