Loading...
Please wait, while we are loading the content...
Similar Documents
Acceleration by pulsar winds in binary systems
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Harding, Alice K. Gaisser, T. K. |
| Copyright Year | 1990 |
| Description | In the absence of accretion torques, a pulsar in a binary system will spin down due to electromagnetic dipole radiation and the spin-down power will drive a wind of relativistic electron-positron pairs. Winds from pulsars with short periods will prevent any subsequent accretion but may be confined by the companion star atmosphere, wind, or magnetosphere to form a standing shock. The authors investigate the possibility of particle acceleration at such a pulsar wind shock and the production of very high energy (VHE) and ultra high energy (UHE) gamma rays from interactions of accelerated protons in the companion star's wind or atmosphere. They find that in close binaries containing active pulsars, protons will be shock accelerated to a maximum energy dependent on the pulsar spin-down luminosity. If a significant fraction of the spin-down power goes into particle acceleration, these systems should be sources of VHE and possibly UHE gamma rays. The authors discuss the application of the pulsar wind model to binary sources such as Cygnus X-3, as well as the possibility of observing VHE gamma-rays from known binary radio pulsar systems. |
| File Size | 1937579 |
| Page Count | 44 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_19910001503 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t7hq8v99c |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 1990-01-30 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Astrophysics Stellar Winds Gamma Rays Binary Stars Shock Fronts Pulsars Stellar Radiation Stellar Magnetospheres Particle Acceleration Companion Stars Stellar Models Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports Server (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
