Radiative losses and cut-offs of energetic particles at relativistic shocks

Abstract

We investigate the acceleration and simultaneous radiative losses of electrons in the vicinity of relativistic shocks. Particles undergo pitch angle diffusion, gaining energy as they cross the shock by the Fermi mechanism and also emitting synchrotron radiation in the ambient magnetic field. A semi-analytic approach is developed which allows us to consider the behaviour of the shape of the spectral cut-off and the variation of that cut-off with the particle pitch angle. The implications for the synchrotron emission of relativistic jets, such as those in gamma ray burst sources and blazars, are discussed.

arXiv comment10 pages, 23 figures and 2 tables. Accepted for publication by MNRAS.

References in corpus (2)

• Particle acceleration at ultrarelativistic shocks: an eigenfunction method
• Discovery of Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from the BL Lac Object H2356-309 with the H.E.S.S. Cherenkov Telescopes

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