Ultra High Energy Electrons Powered by Pulsar Rotation

Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2013 papers

Abstract

A new mechanism of particle acceleration, driven by the rotational slow down of the Crab pulsar, is explored. The rotation, through the time dependent centrifugal force, can efficiently excite unstable Langmuir waves in the electron-positron (hereafter e(±)) plasma of the star magnetosphere. These waves, then, Landau damp on electrons accelerating them in the process. The net transfer of energy is optimal when the wave growth and the Landau damping times are comparable and are both very short compared to the star rotation time. We show, by detailed calculations, that these are precisely the conditions for the parameters of the Crab pulsar. This highly efficient route for energy transfer allows the electrons in the primary beam to be catapulted to multiple TeV (~ 100 TeV) and even PeV energy domain. It is expected that the proposed mechanism may, unravel the puzzle of the origin of ultra high energy cosmic ray electrons.

Related Papers

• → Mission Overview and Initial Observation Results of the X-Ray Pulsar Navigation-I Satellite(2017)31 cited
• → First results of pulsar observations with the LST-1(2023)2 cited
• → Hard X-Rays from the Crab Pulsar(1969)33 cited
• → A method for judging decay or growth of the magnetic field of pulsar(2009)
• → Phase locked Spectroscopic Imaging of the Crab Pulsar(2000)