Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie
STEPHEN PHILLIPS hostreviews.co.uk / UNSPLASH

Pulsar Winds

John Kirk , Max Planck Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg

Pulsar Winds and the nebulae which they energize (PWN) are among the most enigmatic objects in astrophysics. They consist of a relativistic, magnetized, electron-positron plasma that forms a compact cloud surrounding young pulsars. Their nonthermal synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission is detected from the radio band to very high energy (TeV) gamma-rays, where they are the dominant galactic source population. The radio-to-infrared spectra of PWN are flat, indicating a remarkably efficient particle acceleration mechanism, able to transfer most of the system energy into a tiny fraction of particles. Despite decades of research, the mechanism responsible for accelerating these particles has remained elusive, and poses one of the greatest challenges in particle acceleration theory. In this talk I will give an introduction to the physics of pulsar winds, and describe recent work on the acceleration mechanisms thought to be at work. These include not only variants of the well-known first-order Fermi mechanism, but also "inductive acceleration", which may explain the mysterious gamma-ray flares from the Crab Nebula, discovered in 2011 by the Agile and Fermi satellites.

Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium
26 Jun 2018, 16:15
Philosophenweg 12, großer Hörsaal

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