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Particle Acceleration in Radio Sources with Internal Turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

J. A. Eilek  and
R. N. Henriksen
J. A. Eilek*
Affiliation:
Physics Department, New Mexico Tech Socorro, N.M. 87801 U.S.A.
R. N. Henriksen*
Affiliation:
Institute for Plasma Research, Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305 U.S.A.

Extract

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Many extended radio sources seem to need in situ regeneration of the relativistic electrons. MHD turbulence generated by surface instabilities has been suggested as the reacceleration mechanism. However, Eilek (1981) has shown that short wavelength MHD waves, which are the most effective particle accelerators, are strongly damped in radio sources. This results in the turbulent region being confined to a thin layer on the edge of the source, so that particles accelerated here must propagate into the radio source if this reacceleration mechanism is to account for the internal synchrotron luminosity. Most likely the particles diffuse across tangled field lines; using numerical modelling of the turbulence, Eilek showed that the particles propagate only a small distance (10 pc–1 kpc) in from the edge. This predicts that larger sources should appear limb brightened; but such limb brightening is rare. If short wavelength MHD waves are indeed the source of reacceleration, they must be generated internally.

Type
Research Article
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 97: Extragalactic Radio Sources , 1982 , pp. 233 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1982 

References

Eilek, J.A., 1981, to appear in Ap. J. Google Scholar
Eilek, J.A. and Henriksen, R.N., 1982, in preparation.Google Scholar
Henriksen, R.N., Bridle, A.D., and Chan, K.L., 1981, submitted to Ap. J. Google Scholar
Kato, S., 1968, Publ. Ast. Soc., Japan, 20, 59.Google Scholar