Non-thermal emission from relativistic MHD simulations of PWNe: from synchrotron to inverse Compton

Abstract

In this paper we complete the set of diagnostic tools for synchrotron emitting sources presented by Del Zanna et al. (Astron. Astrophys. 453, 621, 2006) with the computation of inverse Compton radiation from the same relativistic particles. Moreover we investigate, for the first time, the gamma-ray emission properties of Pulsar Wind Nebulae in the light of the axisymmetric jet-torus scenario. The method consists in evolving the relativistic MHD equations and the maximum energy of the emitting particles. The particle energy distribution function is split in two components: the radio one connected to a relic population born at the outburst of the supernova and the other associated to the wind population continuously accelerated at the termination shock and emitting up to the gamma-ray band. We consider the general Klein-Nishina cross section and three different photon targets: the nebular synchrotron photons, far-infrared thermal ones and the cosmic microwave background. The overall synchrotron spectrum is fitted assuming an excess of injected particles and a steeper power law with respect to previous models. The TeV emission has the correct shape but is in excess of the data. This is due to the nebular magnetic field structure as obtained by the simulations. The jet-torus morphology is visible in high-resolution gamma-ray synthetic maps too. We present a preliminary exploration of time variability in the X and gamma-ray bands.

13 pages, 7 figures, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics

References in corpus (8)

• Observations of the Crab Nebula with H.E.S.S
• VHE Gamma-Ray Observation of the Crab Nebula and its Pulsar with the MAGIC telescope
• First detection of a VHE gamma-ray spectral maximum from a Cosmic source: H.E.S.S. discovery of the Vela X nebula
• Energy dependent gamma-ray morphology in the Pulsar wind nebula HESSJ1825-137
• Simulated synchrotron emission from Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Relativistic Jets and Long-Duration Gamma-ray Bursts from the Birth of Magnetars
• Far-infrared and sub-mm observations of the Crab nebula
• Local Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and synchrotron modulation in Pulsar Wind Nebulae

Cited by in corpus (3)

• A Dynamical Model for the Evolution of a Pulsar Wind Nebula inside a Non-Radiative Supernova Remnant
• Probing the Nature of the Vela X Cocoon
• Polarization in Pulsar Wind Nebulae