Dynamo action in thick disks around Kerr black holes: high-order resistive GRMHD simulations

We present the first kinematic study of an $\alpha\Omega$-dynamo in the General Relativistic Magneto-HydroDynamics (GRMHD) regime, applied to thick disks orbiting around Kerr black holes and using a fully covariant mean field dynamo closure for the Ohm law. We show that the $\alpha\Omega$-dynamo mechanism leads to a continuous exponential growth of the magnetic field within the disk and to the formation of dynamo waves drifting away or toward the equatorial plane. Since the evolution of the magnetic field occurs qualitatively in the same fashion as in the Sun, we present also butterfly diagrams that characterize our models and show the establishment of an additional timescale, which depends on the microscopic properties of the turbulent motions, possibly providing an alternative explanation to periodicities observed in many high-energy astrophysical sources where accretion onto a rotating black hole is believed to operate.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Theory of Pulsar Wind Nebulae

Our understanding of Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe), has greatly improved in the last years thanks to unprecedented high resolution images taken from the HUBBLE, CHANDRA and XMM satellites. The discovery of complex but similar inner features, with the presence of unexpected axisymmetric rings and jets, has prompted a new investigation into the dynamics of the interaction of the pulsar winds with the surrounding SNR, which, thanks to the improvement in the computational resources, has let to a better understanding of the properties of these objects. On the other hand the discovery of non-thermal emission from bow shock PWNe, and of systems with a complex interaction between pulsar and SNR, has led to the development of more reliable evolutionary models. I will review the standard theory of PWNe, their evolution, and the current status in the modeling of their emission properties, in particular I will show that our evolutionary models are able to describe the observations, and that the X-ray emission can now be reproduced with sufficient accuracy, to the point that we can use these nebulae to investigate fundamental issues as the properties of relativistic outflows and particle acceleration.Comment: 9 page, 5 figures, Proceeding of the conference "40 Years of Pulsars", 12-17 August 2007, Montreal, Canada. (figures are not properly displayed in .ps or .pdf version please download archive for them

Fast reconnection in relativistic plasmas: the magnetohydrodynamics tearing instability revisited

Fast reconnection operating in magnetically dominated plasmas is often invoked in models for magnetar giant flares, for magnetic dissipation in pulsar winds, or to explain the gamma-ray flares observed in the Crab nebula, hence its investigation is of paramount importance in high-energy astrophysics. Here we study, by means of two dimensional numerical simulations, the linear phase and the subsequent nonlinear evolution of the tearing instability within the framework of relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics, as appropriate in situations where the Alfven velocity approaches the speed of light. It is found that the linear phase of the instability closely matches the analysis in classical MHD, where the growth rate scales with the Lundquist number S as S^-1/2, with the only exception of an enhanced inertial term due to the thermal and magnetic energy contributions. In addition, when thin current sheets of inverse aspect ratio scaling as S^-1/3 are considered, the so-called "ideal" tearing regime is retrieved, with modes growing independently on S and extremely fast, on only a few light crossing times of the sheet length. The overall growth of fluctuations is seen to solely depend on the value of the background Alfven velocity. In the fully nonlinear stage we observe an inverse cascade towards the fundamental mode, with Petschek-type supersonic jets propagating at the external Alfven speed from the X-point, and a fast reconnection rate at the predicted value R~(ln S)^-1.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication (MNRAS

Radio Polarization Observations of the Snail: A Crushed Pulsar Wind Nebula in G327.1-1.1 with a Highly Ordered Magnetic Field

Pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) are suggested to be acceleration sites of cosmic rays in the Galaxy. While the magnetic field plays an important role in the acceleration process, previous observations of magnetic field configurations of PWNe are rare, particularly for evolved systems. We present a radio polarization study of the "Snail" PWN inside the supernova remnant G327.1-1.1 using the Australia Telescope Compact Array. This PWN is believed to have been recently crushed by the supernova (SN) reverse shock. The radio morphology is composed of a main circular body with a finger-like protrusion. We detected a strong linear polarization signal from the emission, which reflects a highly ordered magnetic field in the PWN and is in contrast to the turbulent environment with a tangled magnetic field generally expected from hydrodynamical simulations. This could suggest that the characteristic turbulence scale is larger than the radio beam size. We built a toy model to explore this possibility, and found that a simulated PWN with a turbulence scale of about one-eighth to one-sixth of the nebula radius and a pulsar wind filling factor of 50--75% provides the best match to observations. This implies substantial mixing between the SN ejecta and pulsar wind material in this system.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap

Simulated synchrotron and Inverse Compton emission from Pulsar Wind Nebulae

We present a complete set of diagnostic tools aimed at reproducing synthetic non-thermal (synchrotron and/or Inverse Compton, IC) emissivity, integrated flux energy, polarization and spectral index simulated maps in comparison to observations. The time dependent relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) equations are solved with a shock capturing code together with the evolution of the maximum particles energy. Applications to Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe) are shown.Comment: 3 pages, 7 figures, proceeding of the conference "40 Years of Pulsars ", 12-17 August 2007, Montreal, Canada, submitted to AI

The termination shock of a magnetar wind: a possible origin of gamma-ray burst X-ray afterglow emission

Context: Swift observations suggest that the X-ray afterglow emission of some gamma-ray bursts (GRB) may have internal origins, and the conventional external shock (ES) cannot be the exclusive source of the afterglow emission. Aims: If the central compact objects of some GRBs are millisecond magentars, the magnetar winds could play an important role in the (internal) X-ray afterglow emission, which is our focus here. Methods: The dynamics and the synchrotron radiation of the termination shock (TS) of the magmnetar winds, as well as the simultaneous GRB ES, are investigated by considering the magnetization of the winds. Results: As a result of the competition between the emission of the wind TS and the GRB ES, two basic types of X-ray afterglows are predicted, i.e., the TS-dominated and the ES-dominated types. Moreover, our results also show that both of the two types of afterglows have a shallow-decay phase and a normal-decay one, as observed by the \textit{Swift} satellite. This indicates that some observed X-ray afterglows could be (internally) produced by the magnetar winds, but not necessarily GRB ESs.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Bow shocks around pulsars and neutron stars

Pulsar wind nebulae are now well established as important probes both of neutron stars' relativistic winds and of the surrounding interstellar medium. Amongst this diverse group of objects, pulsar bow shocks have long been regarded as an oddity, only seen around a handful of rapidly moving neutron stars. However, recent efforts at optical, radio and X-ray wavelengths have identified many new pulsar bow shocks, and these results have consequently motivated renewed theoretical efforts to model these systems. Here I review the new results and ideas which have emerged on these spectacular systems, and explain how bow shocks and "Crab-like" nebulae now form a consistent picture within our understanding of pulsar winds.Comment: 12 pages, 2 embedded EPS figures, 1 GIF figure. Advances in Space Research, in pres

Spherically symmetric relativistic MHD simulations of pulsar wind nebulae in supernova remnants

Pulsars, formed during supernova explosions, are known to be sources of relativistic magnetized winds whose interaction with the expanding supernova remnants (SNRs) gives rise to a pulsar wind nebula (PWN). We present spherically symmetric relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) simulations of the interaction of a pulsar wind with the surrounding SNR, both in particle and magnetically dominated regimes. As shown by previous simulations, the evolution can be divided in three phases: free expansion, a transient phase characterized by the compression and reverberation of the reverse shock, and a final Sedov expansion. The evolution of the contact discontinuity between the PWN and the SNR (and consequently of the SNR itself) is almost independent of the magnetization of the nebula as long as the total (magnetic plus particle) energy is the same. However, a different behaviour of the PWN internal structure is observable during the compression-reverberation phase, depending on the degree of magnetization=2E The simulations were performed using the third order conservative scheme by Del Zanna et al. (2003).Comment: 11 pages, Latex, 22 Encapsulated PostScript figures, accepted f or publication on A&