Related papers: The termination shock in a striped pulsar wind
Fast magnetosonic waves in a magnetically-dominated plasma are investigated. In the pulsar wind, these waves may transport a significant fraction of the energy flux. It is shown that the nonlinear steepening and subsequent formation of…
The spin-down power of a pulsar is thought to be carried away in an MHD wind in which, at least close to the star, the energy transport is dominated by Poynting flux. The pulsar drives a low-frequency wave in this wind, consisting of…
Solar flares - the most powerful explosions in the solar system - are also efficient particle accelerators, capable of energizing a large number of charged particles to relativistic speeds. A termination shock is often invoked in the…
The study of short-duration gamma-ray bursts provides growing evidence that a good fraction of double neutron star mergers lead to the formation of stable millisecond magnetars. The launch of Poynting flux by the millisecond magnetars could…
We calculate the structure of a relativistic shock wave in which the internal energy of the shocked fluid is radiated away on a time scale much shorter than the characteristic shock propagation time. The shock is assumed to move through a…
Diffusive shock acceleration at collisionless shocks is thought to be the source of many of the energetic particles observed in space. Large-scale spatial variations of the magnetic field has been shown to be important in understanding…
We investigate the impact of magnetic fields and diffusion mechanisms on the energy spectra of particles accelerated via diffusive shock acceleration. We analyse magnetised shock jump conditions and demonstrate how magnetisation and angular…
The enhanced star forming activity, typical of starburst galaxies, powers strong galactic winds expanding on kiloparsec (kpc) scales and characterized by bubble structures. Here we discuss the possibility that particle acceleration may take…
The mechanism that accelerates particles to the energies required to produce the observed high-energy impulsive emission in solar flares is not well understood. Drake et al. (2006) proposed a mechanism for accelerating electrons in…
We investigate the emission of rotating magnetized neutron stars due to the acceleration and radiation of particles in the relativistic wind and in the magnetotail of the star. We consider that the charged particles are accelerated by…
The Stokes parameters of the pulsed synchrotron radiation produced in the striped pulsar wind model are computed and compared with optical observations of the Crab pulsar. We assume the main contribution to the wind emissivity comes from a…
The equatorial current sheet in pulsar magnetospheres is often regarded as an ideal site for particle acceleration via relativistic reconnection. Using 2D spherical particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate particle acceleration in the…
The dynamics of a standing shock front in a Poynting-flux dominated relativistic flow is investigated by using a one-dimensional, relativistic, two-fluid simulation. An upstream flow containing a circularly polarized, sinusoidal magnetic…
Spider pulsars are compact binary systems composed of a millisecond pulsar and a low-mass companion. Their X-ray emission - modulated on the orbital period - is interpreted as synchrotron radiation from high-energy electrons accelerated at…
The origin of cosmic rays in our Galaxy remains a subject of active debate. While supernova remnant shocks are often invoked as the sites of acceleration, it is now widely accepted that the difficulties of such sources in reaching PeV…
Relativistic current sheets have been proposed as the sites of dissipation in pulsar winds, jets in active galaxies and other Poynting-flux dominated flows. It is shown that the steady versions of these structures differ from their…
We present some recent developments in the theory of particle acceleration at shock fronts in the presence of dynamical reaction of the accelerated particles and self-generation of magnetic field due to streaming instability. The spectra of…
We investigate the process of particle acceleration at the termination shock that develops in the bubble excavated by winds of star clusters in the interstellar medium. We develop a theory of diffusive shock acceleration at such shock and…
(abridged) Pulsar activity and its related radiation mechanism are usually explained by invoking some plasma processes occurring inside the magnetosphere. Despite many detailed local investigations, the global electrodynamics around those…
Pulsar wind nebulae are efficient particle accelerators, and yet the processes at work remain elusive. Self-generated, microturbulence is too weak in relativistic magnetized shocks to accelerate particles over a wide energy range,…