Related papers: Fermi Pulsars and the Cosmic Ray Knee
It is shown that Fermi acceleration at an ultra-relativistic shock wave cannot operate on a particle for more than 1 1/2 Fermi cycle (i.e., u -> d -> u -> d) if the particle Larmor radius is much smaller than the coherence length of the…
We consider the acceleration of charged particles near ultra-relativistic shocks, with Lorentz factor Gamma_s >> 1. We present simulations of the acceleration process and compare these with results from semi-analytical calculations. We show…
In a previous analysis of electroproduction of hypernuclei the cross sections were calculated in distorted-wave impulse approximation where the momentum of the initial proton in the nucleus was set to zero (the frozen-proton approximation).…
Understanding the physics of rotation-powered millisecond pulsars (MSPs) presents a number of challenges compared to that of the non-recycled pulsar population. Even though their fast rotation rates can produce high spin-down power and…
The origin and nature of the ultrahigh energy cosmic rays remains a mystery. However, considerable progress has been achieved in past years due to observations performed by the Pierre Auger Observatory and Telescope Array. Above $10^{18}$…
In order to depict the quantization of Landau levels, we introduce Dirac $\delta$ function, and gain a concise expression for the electron Fermi energy, $E_{F}(e) \propto B^{1/4}$. The high soft X-ray luminosities of magnetars may be…
Using recent measurements of the spectrum and chemical composition of the highest energy cosmic rays, we consider the sources of these particles. We find that the data strongly prefers models in which the sources of the ultra-high energy…
We reexamine stochastic Fermi acceleration (STFA) in the low energy (Newtonian) regime in the context of solar flares. The particle energization rate depends a dispersive term and a coherent gain term. The energy dependence of pitch angle…
Nonlinear kinetic theory of cosmic ray (CR) acceleration in supernova remnants is employed to calculate CR spectra. The magnetic field in SNRs is assumed to be significantly amplified by the efficiently accelerating nuclear CR component. It…
The calculations in Thomas-Fermi approximation show that in a gravitational field each cell of ultra dense matter inside celestial bodies obtains a very small positive electric charge. A celestial body is electrically neutral as a whole,…
We study the propagation of ultra-high energy cosmic ray nuclei through the background of cosmic microwave and intergalactic infrared photons, using recent re-estimates for the density of the last ones. We perform a detailed Monte Carlo…
The atomic nucleus is composed of two different kinds of fermions, protons and neutrons. If the protons and neutrons did not interact, the Pauli exclusion principle would force the majority fermions (usually neutrons) to have a higher…
Enabled by the Fermi Large Area Telescope, we now know young and recycled pulsars fill the gamma-ray sky, and we are beginning to understand their emission mechanism and their distribution throughout the Galaxy. However, key questions…
The paper investigates the overall and detailed features of cosmic ray (CR) spectra in the knee region using the scenario of nuclei-photon interactions around the acceleration sources. Young supernova remnants can be the physical realities…
After a brief review of galactic cosmic rays in the GeV to TeV energy range, we describe some current problems of interest for particles of very high energy. Particularly interesting are two features of the spectrum, the `knee' above…
The ultra-high energy cosmic rays observed at the Earth are most likely accelerated in extra-galactic sources. For the typical luminosities invoked for such sources, the electric current associated to the flux of cosmic rays that leave them…
When mobile impurities are introduced and coupled to a Fermi sea, new quasiparticles known as Fermi polarons are formed. There are two interesting, yet drastically different regimes of the Fermi polaron problem: (I) the attractive polaron…
Strongly magnetized and fast rotating neutron stars are known to be efficient particle accelerators within their magnetosphere and wind. They are suspected to accelerate leptons, protons and maybe ions to extreme relativistic regimes where…
An oblique-rotating pulsar generates a relativistic striped wind in a pulsar wind nebula (PWN). The termination shock of the PWN compresses the Poynting-flux-dominated flow and drives magnetic reconnection. By carrying out particle-in-cell…
A quantitative understanding of the weak nuclear response is a prerequisite for the analyses of neutrino experiments such as K2K and MiniBOONE, which measure energy and angle of the muons produced in neutrino-nucleus interactions in the…