On particle acceleration and very high energy gamma-ray emission in Crab-like pulsars

Abstract

The origin of very energetic charged particles and the production of very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission remains still a challenging issue in modern pulsar physics. By applying a toy model, we explore the acceleration of co-rotating charged particles close to the light surface in a plasma-rich pulsar magnetosphere and study their interactions with magnetic and photon fields under conditions appropriate for Crab-type pulsars. Centrifugal acceleration of particles in a monopol-like magnetic field geometry is analyzed and the efficiency constraints, imposed by corotation, inverse Compton interactions and curvature radiation reaction are determined. We derive expressions for the maximum particle energy and provide estimates for the corresponding high-energy curvature and inverse Compton power outputs. It is shown that for Crab-like pulsars, electron Lorentz factor up to $\gamma \sim 10^7$ can be achieved, allowing inverse Compton (Klein-Nishina) up-scattering of thermal photons to TeV energies with a maximum luminosity output of $\sim 10^{31}$ erg/s. Curvature radiation, on the other hand, will result in a strong GeV emission output of up to $\sim (10^{34}-10^{35})$ erg/s, quasi-exponentially decreasing towards higher energies for photon energies below $\sim 50$ GeV. Accordingly to the results presented only young pulsars are expected to be sites of detectable VHE $\gamma$-ray emission.

6 pages, 1 figure

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• Centrifugal acceleration in the isotropic photon field
• New mechanism of acceleration of particles by stellar black holes
• On the mechanism of the pulsed high energy emission from the pulsar PSR B1509-58
• On the role of rotation in the outflows of the Crab pulsar
• 3D study of centrifugal acceleration in isotropic photon fields
• Synchrotron emission from the depths of pulsar magnetospheres
• Rotationally-driven VHE emission from the Vela pulsar
• On the novel mechanism of acceleration of cosmic particles
• Maximum possible energies of electrons accelerated in magnetospheres of rotating black holes
• Very high energy emission of Crab-like pulsars driven by the Cherenkov drift radiation
• On high frequency Cherenkov-type radiation in pulsar magnetospheric electron-positron plasma