24 research outputs found
Plasma physics in clusters of galaxies
Clusters of galaxies are the largest self-gravitating structures in the
universe. Each cluster is filled with a large-scale plasma atmosphere, in which
primordial matter is mixed with matter that has been processed inside stars.
This is a wonderful plasma physics laboratory. Our diagnostics are the data we
obtain from X-ray and radio telescopes. The thermal plasma is a strong X-ray
source; from this we determine its density and temperature. Radio data reveal a
relativistic component in the plasma, and first measurements of the
intracluster magnetic field have now been made. Energization of the particles
and the field must be related to the cosmological evolution of the cluster. The
situation is made even richer by the few galaxies in each cluster which host
radio jets. In these galaxies, electrodynamics near a massive black hole in the
core of the galaxy lead to a collimated plasma beam which propagates from the
nucleus out to supergalactic scales. These jets interact with the cluster
plasma to form the structures known as radio galaxies. The interaction disturbs
and energizes the cluster plasma. This complicates the story but also helps us
understand both the radio jets and the cluster plasma.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 3 in color. Invited review, to appear in Physics
of Plasmas, May 2003. After publication it can be found at
http://ojps.aip.org/po
Evolution of photon and particle spectra in compact, luminous objects
The physics of high energy photons and particles (especially electrons and positrons) in the compact, high-energy-density of galactic nuclei and quasars was investigated. A numerical code was developed which follows the nonlinear spectral evolution of a pair/photon plasma, due to two-body scattering and interaction process, in an unmagnetized system. The code was applied both to static plasmas and to relativistic expanding winds
Pair Creation in the Pulsar Magnetosphere
We present numerical simulations of the electron-positron plasma creation
process in a simple neutron star magnetosphere. We have developed a set of
cascade `kernels', which represent the endpoint of the pair cascades resulting
from monoenergetic photon seeds. We explore two popular models by convolving
these kernels with the seed photon distributions produced by curvature
radiation and by inverse Compton scattering. We find that the pair plasma in
either case is well-described in its rest frame by a relativistic Maxwellian
distribution with temperature near mc^2/k_B. We present cascade multiplicities
and efficiencies for a range of seed particle energies and stellar magnetic
fields. We find that the efficiencies and multiplicities of pair creation are
often lower than has been assumed in previous work.Comment: 38 pages, including 11 figures and 5 tables. To appear in the
Astrophysical Journal. Uses the aastex macro
Short-lived Radio Bursts from the Crab Pulsar
Our high-time-resolution observations reveal that individual main pulses from
the Crab pulsar contain one or more short-lived microbursts. Both the energy
and duration of bursts measured above 1 GHz can vary dramatically in less than
a millisecond. These fluctuations are too rapid to be caused by propagation
through turbulence in the Crab Nebula or the interstellar medium; they must be
intrinsic to the radio emission process in the pulsar. The mean duration of a
burst varies with frequency as , significantly different from the
broadening caused by interstellar scattering. We compare the properties of the
bursts to some simple models of microstructure in the radio emission region.Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in Ap
Evolution of Photon and Particle Spectra in Compact, Luminous Objects
Physical conditions in the radiating plasma in the cores of radio-strong quasars and active galactic nuclei cannot be derived from observations until the effects of relativistic aberration are understood. This requires determining both the bulk flow speeds and any wave or signal speed in the parsec-scale nuclear jets. In this project we studied several aspects of such waves. We considered constraints on jet deceleration by mass pickup, and found that bolometric luminosities of the active nuclei cannot constrain core jet speeds usefully. We also simulated observations of ballistic, helical trajectories and helical waves moving directly outwards along the jet. We found that ballistic trajectories are not allowed by the data; the helical features seen are very likely to be helical waves. We believe these are waves propagating in the jet plasma. To this end, we studied waves propagating in relativistic pair plasma jets. In particular, we undertook a program whose goal was to determine the nature of waves which can propagate in relativistic pair plasmas, and how such waves propagating in streaming jet plasma would be observed by an external observer. We developed the possibility of using pulsars as test cases for our models; this takes advantage of new technology in pulsar observations, and the similarity of the physical conditions in the pulsar magnetosphere to the dense, relativistic pair plasmas which exist in radio-strong quasars