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arXiv 0907.4756astro-ph.HE
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脉冲星风星云和河外喷流的同步加速器损失谱突变

Synchrotron-Loss Spectral Breaks in Pulsar-Wind Nebulae and Extragalactic Jets

S. P. Reynolds

摘要:

同步辐射物质的流动可以在几个天体物理环境中找到,包括河外喷流和脉冲风星云(PWNe)。对于X射线同步辐射,流动时间通常比电子辐射寿命长,因此在给定X射线能量下的有效源尺寸是在该能量下辐射的电子在燃烧之前可以对流的距离。由于同步辐射损失随电子能量变化很大,因此源的大小随X射线能量的增加而下降,导致同步辐射光谱变陡。对于均匀源,这种烧蚀产生了众所周知的结果,即源的综合光谱指数陡化0.5。然而,对于不均匀的源,不同的陡化量是可能的。我展示了一个简单的相对论性电子流出的唯象图像,具有整体非相对论性流速,横向流管半径,磁场强度,物质密度和流速都随着距离注入点的不同幂而变化。对于这样一幅图,我计算了作为幂律指数函数的突变点以上的谱指数的值,并给出了可能的陡化范围。我表明,这些简单的计算证实了源光度,其中还包括光谱“凸点”以下的突破,从以前在较高的能量电子积累的完整集成。在许多情况下,河外喷流的X射线同步辐射比射电辐射陡0.5倍以上;许多脉冲风星云也表现出同样的现象。至少在某些情况下,源的不均匀性是可能的,因此谱陡化的量成为源动力学或几何性质的诊断。

英文摘要:

Flows of synchrotron-emitting material can be found in several astrophysical contexts, including extragalactic jets and pulsar-wind nebulae (PWNe). For X-ray synchrotron emission, flow times are often longer than electron radiative lifetimes, so the effective source size at a given X-ray energy is the distance electrons radiating at that energy can convect before they burn off. Since synchrotron losses vary strongly with electron energy, the source size drops with increasing X-ray energy, resulting in a steepening of the synchrotron spectrum. For homogeneous sources, this burnoff produces the well-known result of a steepening by 0.5 in the source's integrated spectral index. However, for inhomogeneous sources, different amounts of steepening are possible. I exhibit a simple phenomenological picture of an outflow of relativistic electrons with bulk nonrelativistic flow speed, with transverse flow-tube radius, magnetic-field strength, matter density, and flow velocity all varying as different powers of distance from the injection point. For such a picture, I calculate the value of the spectral index above the break as a function of the power-law indices, and show the possible range of steepenings. I show that these simple calculations are confirmed by full integrations of source luminosity, which also include the spectral "bump" below the break from the accumulation of electrons formerly at higher energies. In many cases, extragalactic jets show X-ray synchrotron emission steeper by more than 0.5 than the radio emission; the same phenomenon is exhibited by many pulsar-wind nebulae. It is possible that source inhomogeneities are responsible in at least some cases, so that the amount of spectral steepening becomes a diagnostic for source dynamical or geometrical properties.

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