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Related papers: Towards Resolving the Crab $\sigma-$Problem: A Lin…

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In this letter we report on turbulent acceleration of the dissipation of magnetic field in the postshock re- gion of a Poynting flux-dominated flow, such as the Crab pulsar wind nebula. We have performed two- dimensional resistive…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-05 Makoto Takamoto , Tsuyoshi Inoue , Shu-ichiro Inutsuka

The radiation of a pulsar wind is computed assuming that at roughly 10 to 100 light cylinder radii from the star, magnetic energy is dissipated into particle energy. The synchrotron emission of heated particles appears periodic, with, in…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 J. G. Kirk , O. Skjaeraasen , Y. A. Gallant

We consider a self-similar force-free wind flowing out of an infinitely thin disk located in the equatorial plane. On the disk plane, we assume that the magnetic stream function $P$ scales as $P\propto R^\nu$, where $R$ is the cylindrical…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-11-26 Ramesh Narayan , Jonathan C. McKinney , Alison J. Farmer

We reinvestigate the generation and accumulation of magnetic flux in optically thin accretion flows around active gravitating objects. The source of the magnetic field is the azimuthal electric current associated with the Poynting-Robertson…

Two-dimensional, relativistic, MHD simulations of pulsar-wind powered nebulae provide strong constraints on the properties of the winds themselves. In particular, they confirm that Poynting flux must be converted into particle energy close…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 J. G. Kirk

We model the inner knot of the Crab Nebula as a synchrotron emission coming from the non-spherical MHD termination shock of relativistic pulsar wind. The post-shock flow is mildly relativistic; as a result the Doppler-beaming has a strong…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-12-23 Maxim Lyutikov , Serguei Komissarov , Oliver Porth

We develop a model of gamma-ray flares of the Crab Nebula resulting from the magnetic reconnection events in highly-magnetized relativistic plasma. We first discuss physical parameters of the Crab nebula and review the theory of pulsar…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-06-06 Maxim Lyutikov , Serguei Komissarov , Lorenzo Sironi , Oliver Porth

The magnetosphere of a rotating pulsar naturally develops a current sheet beyond the light cylinder (LC). Magnetic reconnection in this current sheet inevitably dissipates a nontrivial fraction of the pulsar spin-down power within a few LC…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-11 Dmitri A. Uzdensky , Anatoly Spitkovsky

We present a numerical model in which a cold pair plasma is ejected with relativistic speed through a polar cap region and flows almost radially outside the light cylinder. Stationary axisymmetric structures of electromagnetic fields and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2010-12-23 Yasufumi Kojima , Junpei Oogi

We consider the radiative acceleration to relativistic bulk velocities of a cold, optically thin plasma which is exposed to an external source of gamma-rays. The flow is driven by radiative momentum input to the gas, the accelerating force…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 Piero Madau , Christopher Thompson

We investigate the physical situation above the pulsar polar cap (PC) where the accelerating primaries (electrons) are not capable of producing sufficient numbers of electron-positron pairs at low altitudes (within 1-2 stellar radii above…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 Alex G. Muslimov , Alice K. Harding

Using fully kinetic simulations, we study the scaling of the inflow speed of collisionless magnetic reconnection from the non-relativistic to ultra-relativistic limit. In the anti-parallel configuration, the inflow speed increases with the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-23 Yi-Hsin Liu , Fan Guo , William Daughton , Hui Li , Michael Hesse

The unusually short durations, high luminosities, and high photon energies of the Crab Nebula gamma-ray flares require relativistic bulk motion of the emitting plasma. We explain the Crab flares as the result of randomly oriented…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-05 Eric Clausen-Brown , Maxim Lyutikov

The evolutions of a neutron star's rotation and magnetic field (B-field) have remained unsolved puzzles for over half a century. We ascribe the rotational braking torques of pulsar to both components, the standard magnetic dipole radiation…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-12-12 Cheng-Min Zhang , Xiang-Han Cui , Di Li , De-Hua Wang , Shuang-Qiang Wang , Na Wang , Jian-Wei Zhang , Bo Peng , Wei-Wei Zhu , Yi-Yan Yang , Yuan-Yue Pan

The Crab Nebula is one of the most efficient accelerators in the Galaxy and the only galactic source showing direct evidence of PeV particles. In spite of this, the physical process behind such effective acceleration is still a deep…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-24 Barbara Olmi , Luca Del Zanna , Elena Amato , Niccolò Bucciantini

In the paradigm of magnetic acceleration of relativistic outflows, a crucial point is identifying a viable mechanism to convert the Poynting flux into the kinetic energy of the plasma, and eventually into the observed radiation. Since the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-08-29 Emanuele Sobacchi , Yuri E. Lyubarsky

In the present paper a self-consistent theory, interpreting the VERITAS observations of the very high energy pulsed emission from the Crab pulsar is considered. The photon spectrum between 10MeV and 400GeV can be described by two power-law…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2012-08-13 Nino Chkheidze , George Machabeli , Zaza Osmanov

Magnetic dissipation is frequently invoked as a way of powering the observed emission of relativistic flows in Gamma Ray Bursts and Active Galactic Nuclei. Pulsar Wind Nebulae provide closer to home cosmic laboratories which can be used to…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-05 S. S. Komissarov

The pulsar wind model is updated by considering the effect of particle density and pulsar death. It can describe both the short term and long term rotational evolution of pulsars consistently. It is applied to model the rotational evolution…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-23 F. F. Kou , H. Tong

We derive basic scaling equations for relativistic magnetic reconnection in the general case of asymmetric inflow conditions and obtain predictions for the outflow Lorentz factor and the reconnection rate. Kinetic Particle-in-Cell…

Plasma Physics · Physics 2022-05-16 Rostom Mbarek , Colby Haggerty , Lorenzo Sironi , Michael Shay , Damiano Caprioli