Komissarov, SS (2013) Magnetic dissipation in the crab nebula. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 428 (3). pp. 2459-2466. ISSN 0035-8711
Abstract
Magnetic dissipation is frequently invoked as a way of powering the observed emission of relativistic flows in Gamma-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei. PulsarWind Nebulae provide closer to home cosmic laboratories which can be used to test the hypothesis. To this end, we reanalyze the observational data on the spindown power of the Crab pulsar, energetics of the Crab nebula and its magnetic field. We show that unless the magnetic inclination angle of the Crab pulsar is very close to 90 degrees the overall magnetization of the striped wind after total dissipation of its stripes is significantly higher than that deduced in the Kennel-Coroniti model and recent axisymmetric simulations of PulsarWind Nebulae. On the other hand, higher wind magnetization is in conflict with the observed low magnetic field of the Crab nebula, unless it is subject to efficient dissipation inside the nebula as well. For the likely inclination angle of 45 degrees the data require magnetic dissipation on the time-scale of about 80 years, which is short compared to the lifetime of the nebula but long compared to the time-scale of Crab's gamma-ray flares.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2012 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | magnetic fields; MHD; radiation mechanisms: non-thermal; pulsars: individual: Crab; ISM: supernova remnants |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mathematics (Leeds) > Applied Mathematics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 24 Aug 2016 14:17 |
Last Modified: | 24 Aug 2016 14:17 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sts214 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnras/sts214 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:97637 |