Related papers: High-energy accelerators above pulsar polar caps
We investigate the electrostatic acceleration of electrons and positrons in the vicinity of the event horizon, applying the pulsar outer-gap model to black hole magnetospheres. During a low accretion phase, the radiatively inefficient…
New almost-degenerate charged and neutral heavy leptons are a feature of a number of theories of physics beyond the Standard Model. The prospects for detecting these at the Large Hadron Collider using a time-of-flight technique are…
An electron irradiated by a linearly polarized relativistic intensity laser pulse in a cylindrical plasma channel can gain significant energy from the pulse. The laser electric and magnetic fields drive electron oscillations in a plane…
Due to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, atomic electrons localized around the nucleus exhibit a characteristic momentum distribution that, in elements with high atomic number, remains significant up to relativistic values. Consequently,…
We study for the first time how a new class of stars could impact an ensemble of pulsars with known masses and spin-periods. These new compact objects are strange stars admixed with condensed dark matter. In this exploratory theoretical…
We study equilibrium magnetic field configurations in a neutron star (NS) whose core has type-II superconducting protons. Unlike the equations for normal matter, which feature no special field strength, those for superconductors contain the…
Axion-like particles (ALPs) can couple to photons in strong magnetic fields, producing characteristic fluctuations in X-ray spectra. Using data from NASA's Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), we analyzed three pulsars: PSR…
We study the discovery potential of axion-like particles (ALP), pseudo-scalars weakly coupled to Standard Model fields, at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Our focus is on ALPs coupled to the electromagnetic field, which would induce…
Abridged. Neutron stars are surrounded by ultra-relativistic particles efficiently accelerated by ultra strong electromagnetic fields. However so far, no numerical simulations were able to handle such extreme regimes of very high Lorentz…
We review recent PIC simulation results which show that double-sided irradiaton of a thin overdense plasma slab by ultra-intense laser pulses from both sides can lead to sustained comoving acceleration of surface electrons to energies much…
The possibility that rotating black holes could be natural particle accelerators has been subject of intense debate. While it appears that for extremal Kerr black holes arbitrarily high center of mass energies could be achieved, several…
A major open issue concerning the active Sun is the effectiveness with which magnetic reconnection accelerates electrons in flares. A paper published by {\em{Nature}} in 2022 used microwave observations to conclude that the Sun is an almost…
Many pulsars are formed with a binary companion from which they can accrete matter. Torque exerted by accreting matter can cause the pulsar spin to increase or decrease, and over long times, an equilibrium spin rate is achieved. Application…
We revisit in the framework of the classical theory the problem of the accelerated motion of an electron, taking into account the effect of the radiation emission. We present results for the momentum and energy of the electromagnetic field…
We study the structure of an outer-magnetospheric gap around a rotating neutron star. Migratory electrons and positrons are accelerated by the electric field exerted in the gap and radiate copious gamma-rays via curvature process. Some of…
Pulsars are rotating neutron stars which emit lighthouse-like beams. Owing to their unique properties, pulsars are a unique astrophysical tool to test general relativity, inform on matter at extreme densities, and probe galactic magnetic…
We here investigate the possibility that the ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) events observed above the GZK limit are mostly protons accelerated in reconnection sites just above the magnetosphere of newborn millisecond pulsars which are…
Spin-polarized particle beams are of interest for applications like deep-inelastic scattering, e.g. to gain further understanding of the proton's nuclear structure. With the advent of high-intensity laser facilities, laser-plasma-based…
We investigate the production of circularly polarised X and gamma-ray signals in cosmic accelerators such as supernova remnants and AGN jets. Proton-proton and proton-photon collisions within these sites produce a charge asymmetry in the…
Unpulsed, high-energy emission from pulsar binaries can be attributed to the interaction of a pulsar wind with that of a companion star. At the shock between the outflows, particles carried away from the pulsar magnetosphere are accelerated…