Physics
Scientific paper
Apr 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997aps..apr.m1203j&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, APS/AAPT Joint Meeting, April 18-21, 1997, abstract #M12.03
Physics
Scientific paper
Many stars ranging from our sun to neutron stars have winds that are believed to end in a termination shock when the winds ram pressure falls to the pressure of the interstellar medium. Such shocks are believed to be sites of particle acceleration. It is well known that computer simulations of particle acceleration by spherical termination shocks exhibit a high energy cutoff. This cutoff, which may not be sharp but determines the overall energy scale of the spectrum, comes at an energy approximately equal to the electric potential drop between the pole and equator of the rotating star. Since the shock has a quasi--perpendicular geometry over most of its area the principle mode of acceleration should be shock drift in the electric field produced by the convection of the magnetic field of the star. Thus, the approximate equality between the high energy cutoff and the potential drop seems most natural; an electric field cannot give a particle any more energy than it contains in its potential drop. It can be shown, however, that this cutoff actually arises from the balance of adiabatic losses in the interior of the stellar wind and the acceleration at the shock. The near equality of the cutoff and the potential drop arises, almost accidentally, from setting the particle's mean free path proportional to its gyroradius in the mean magnetic field.
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