Thermal synchrotron radiation from RRMHD simulations of the double tearing mode reconnection - Application to the Crab flares

Abstract

We study the magneto-hydrodynamic tearing instability occurring in a double current sheet configuration when a guide field is present. This is investigated by means of resistive relativistic magneto-hydrodynamic (RRMHD) simulations. Following the dynamics of the double tearing mode (DTM), we are able to compute synthetic synchrotron spectra in the explosive reconnection phase. The pulsar striped wind model represents a site where such current sheets are formed, including a guide field. The variability of the Crab nebula/pulsar system, seen as flares, can be therefore naturally explained by the DTM explosive phase in the striped wind. Our results indicate that the Crab GeV flare can be explained by the double tearing mode in the striped wind region if the magnetization parameter $\sigma$ is around $10^5$.

10 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (5)

• Ab-initio pulsar magnetosphere: three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of oblique pulsars
• Particle acceleration in axisymmetric pulsar current sheets
• Tearing instability in relativistic magnetically dominated plasmas
• Variable gamma-ray emission from the Crab Nebula: short flares and long "waves"
• The Evolution of High Temperature Plasma in Magnetar Magnetospheres and its Implications for Giant Flares

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Fast reconnection in relativistic plasmas: the magnetohydrodynamics tearing instability revisited
• Theory of pulsar magnetosphere and wind
• Evolution of 3-dimensional Relativistic Current Sheets and Development of Self-Generated Turbulence
• Electron acceleration at pulsar wind termination shocks