The Relativistic Filamentation Instability in Magnetized Plasmas

Stockem, A.; Lerche, I.; Schlickeiser, R.

doi:10.1086/511954

Cited by 29 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The knot's magnetic field may be generated from the interaction of the relativistically moving knot with the surrounding ambient interstellar or intergalactic medium that also causes the injection of ultrarelativistic charged particles by the relativistic pick-up process (Pohl & Schlickeiser 2000;Gerbig & Schlickeiser 2007;Stockem et al 2007). This interaction is a prominent example of the relativistic collision of plasma shells with different properties (temperature, density, composition etc.).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchrotron self-Compton flaring of TeV blazars

Schlickeiser¹,

Röken²

2007

A&A

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The vast improvement of the sensitivity of modern ground-based air Cherenkov telescopes, together with the sensitive flux measurements at lower frequencies, requires accurate elaborations of the theoretical radiation models for flaring blazars. Here the flaring of TeV blazars due to the synchrotron-self Compton (SSC) process is considered. We assume that, at the moment t = t 0 , a flare in the emission knot occurs due to the instantaneous injection of monoenergetic (E 0 ) ultrarelativistic electrons. The ultrarelativistic electrons are injected uniformly over the knot volume and at later times are subject to linear synchrotron radiation cooling in a magnetic field whose strength remains constant during the time evolution of the relativistic electrons.The generated synchrotron photons are subject to multiple Thomson-scattering off the cold electrons in the source giving rise to spatial photon diffusion. Optically thick and thin synchrotron radiation intensities and photon density distributions in the emission knot as functions of frequency and time are analytically determined. The synchrotron photons serve as target photons for the SSC process, which is calculated in the optically thin frequency range using the Thomson approximation of the inverse Compton cross section. It is shown that the optically thick part of the synchrotron radiation process provides a negligible contribution to the resulting SSC intensity at all frequencies and times.Because the high-energy TeV photons undergo no elastic multiple Compton scatterings, we neglect the influence of photon diffusion in the calculation of the SSC intensity and fluence distribution with energy. The SSC fluence exhibits a break at E f = 15.8bGeV from a ∝E −1/4 s -power law spectrum at lower photon energiesThe application to the observed TeV fluence spectrum of the flare of PKS 2155-304 on July 28, 2006 yields δb −1/3 = 27.1 ± 6.5. The emergent SSC light curve is independent of spatial photon diffusion and determined by the temporal variations on the relativistic electron density distribution and the synchrotron photon density. The comparison of the observed with the theoretical monochromatic synchrotron light curve determines the photon escape distribution.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchrotron self-Compton flaring of TeV blazars

Schlickeiser¹,

Röken²

2007

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“…If a plasma would start with parameter values outside this rhomb-like configuration, it immediately would generate fluctuations via the instabilities, which quickly relax the plasma distribution into the stable regime within the rhombconfiguration. Similar anisotropic plasma distributions, such as relativistic kappa-distributions, are to be expected during the pickup of interstellar particles by the interaction of the relativistic jet in the case of blazars with the surrounding ambient interstellar or intergalactic medium (Stockem et al 2007). Such an interaction is a prominent example of the relativistic collision of plasma shells with different properties (temperature, density, composition etc.).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…We model the emission knot as a spherical magnetised, fully ionised plasma cloud of radius R consisting of cold electrons and protons with a uniform density distribution and a randomly oriented large-scale time-dependent magnetic field B(t) that adjusts itself to the actual kinetic energy density of the radiating electrons in these sources, yielding the different nonlinear synchrotron radiation cooling behaviour. This magnetic field is most likely generated from the interaction of the relativistically moving knot with the surrounding ambient intergalactic and interstellar medium that is also responsible for the injection of the ultra-relativistic particles by the relativistic pickup process (Pohl & Schlickeiser 2000;Gerbig & Schlickeiser 2007;Stockem et al 2007). The existence of a magnetic field is mandatory for the generation of synchrotron radiation and hence, the synchrotron self-Compton process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchrotron self-Compton flaring of TeV blazars

Röken

Schlickeiser

2009

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A theoretical radiation model for the flaring of TeV blazars is discussed here for the case of a nonlinear electron synchrotron cooling in these sources. We compute analytically the optically thick and thin synchrotron radiation intensities and photon density distributions in the emission knot as functions of frequency and time followed by the synchrotron self-Compton intensity and fluence in the optically thin frequency range using the Thomson approximation of the inverse Compton cross section. At all times and frequencies, the optically thin part of the synchrotron radiation process is shown to provide the dominant contribution to the synchrotron self-Compton quantities, while the optically thick part is always negligible. Afterwards, we compare the linear to the nonlinear synchrotron radiation cooling model using the data record of PKS 2155-304 on MJD 53944 favouring a linear cooling of the injected monoenergetic electrons. The good agreement of both the linear and the nonlinear cooling model with the data supports the relativistic pickup process operating in this source. Additionally, we discuss the synchrotron self-Compton scattering, applying the full Klein-Nishina cross section to achieve the most accurate results for the synchrotron self-Compton intensity and fluence distributions.

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“…However, depending on the plasma parameters, this background field must not be too strong because otherwise the instability will be suppressed (Tautz and Sakai 2007;Stockem et al 2007Stockem et al , 2008. Fig.…”

Section: Maxwellian Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interstellar turbulent magnetic field generation by plasma instabilities

Tautz

Triptow²

2013

Astrophys Space Sci

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The maximum magnetic field strength generated by Weibel-type plasma instabilities is estimated for typical conditions in the interstellar medium. The relevant kinetic dispersion relations are evaluated by conducting a parameter study both for Maxwellian and for suprathermal particle distributions showing that micro Gauss magnetic fields can be generated. It is shown that, depending on the streaming velocity and the plasma temperatures, either the longitudinal or a transverse instability will be dominant. In the presence of an ambient magnetic field, the filamentation instability is typically suppressed while the two-stream and the classic Weibel instability are retained.

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The Relativistic Filamentation Instability in Magnetized Plasmas

Cited by 29 publications

References 29 publications

Synchrotron self-Compton flaring of TeV blazars

Synchrotron self-Compton flaring of TeV blazars

Synchrotron self-Compton flaring of TeV blazars

Interstellar turbulent magnetic field generation by plasma instabilities

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