Other
Scientific paper
Sep 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011head...12.2010c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #12, #20.10
Other
Scientific paper
The Fermi and Agile gamma-ray space telescopes recently discovered short and powerful gamma-ray flares in the Crab Nebula. These events presumably originate from a tiny region of the nebula where electrons are accelerated to PeV energies and radiate >100 MeV synchrotron radiation in a milli-Gauss magnetic field. In classical models of particle acceleration, where the accelerating electric field is smaller than the magnetic field, the synchrotron radiation cannot exceed 100 MeV because radiative losses balance the acceleration rate. We propose that particles are efficiently accelerated to PeV energies in a magnetic reconnection layer. We find that ultrarelativistic electron orbits are trapped and collapse rapidly deep into the current layer where the magnetic field becomes small. After a few days of acceleration by the reconnection electric field, electrons are accelerated to PeV energies and are focused into a tight, narrow beam. This mechanism provides a viable explanation to the gamma-ray flares in the Crab Nebula and could be at work in other astrophysical objects such as relativistic jets in AGN.
Begelman Mitchell C.
Cerutti Benoit
Uzdensky Dmitri A.
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