Particle Acceleration at Relativistic Shocks
Astrophysics
2007-05-23 v1
Abstract
I review the current status of Fermi acceleration theory at relativistic shocks. I first discuss the relativistic shock jump conditions, then describe the non-relativistic Fermi mechanism and the differences introduced by relativistic flows. I present numerical calculations of the accelerated particle spectrum, and examine the maximum energy attainable by this process. I briefly consider the minimum energy for Fermi acceleration, and a possible electron pre-acceleration mechanism.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0201243,
title = {Particle Acceleration at Relativistic Shocks},
author = {Yves A. Gallant},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0201243},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
17 pages, 4 figures. To appear in "Relativistic Flows in Astrophysics", A.W. Guthmann, M. Georganopoulos, A. Marcowith and K. Manolokou, eds., Lecture Notes in Pysics, Springer Verlag