Cut-offs and pile-ups in shock acceleration spectra

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

23 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physics

Scientific paper

10.1016/S0927-6505(98)00055-3

We have examined cutoffs and pile-ups due to various processes in the spectra of particles produced by shock acceleration, and found that, even in the absence of energy losses, the shape of the spectrum of accelerated particles at energies well below the nominal maximum energy depends strongly on the energy dependence of the diffusion coefficient. This has implications in many areas, for example, in fitting the observed cosmic ray spectrum with models based on power-law source spectra and rigidity dependent diffusive escape from the galaxy. With continuous energy losses, prominent pile-ups may arise, and these should be included when modelling synchrotron X-ray and inverse Compton gamma-ray spectra from a shock-accelerated electron population. We have developed a Monte Carlo/numerical technique to model the shape of the spectrum for the case of non-continuous energy losses such as inverse Compton scattering in the Klein-Nishina regime. We find that the shapes of the resulting cut-offs differ substantially from those arising from continuous processes, and we suggest that such differences could be observable through their effect on the spectrum of radiation emitted by a population of recently accelerated electrons as, for example, may exist in young supernova remnants.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Cut-offs and pile-ups in shock acceleration spectra does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Cut-offs and pile-ups in shock acceleration spectra, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Cut-offs and pile-ups in shock acceleration spectra will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-292382

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.