Abstract
Cosmic Rays (CRs) are particles whose energies are typically much higher than the thermal energies found in astrophysical environments. By “nonthermal” emission we mean continuum emission that cannot be originated by blackbody radiation or thermal bremsstrahlung. Their acceleration processes have to explain the features observed in experimental data and discussed in the previous chapters, namely that:
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Notes
- 1.
we assume here a nonrelativistic motion and therefore \(\varGamma =1\) in Eq. (2.3).
- 2.
- 3.
This section can be skipped in the early reading steps.
- 4.
In this section, as usual in thermodynamics, the symbol \(\gamma \) always refers to the adiabatic index of gases.
- 5.
The first ionization energy is the amount of energy it takes to detach one electron from a neutral atom.
- 6.
We leave for the student to work out the radius-mass relation for the nonrelativistic case. When the density in a white dwarf is below \(\rho _{e_C}\), as its mass increases, its radius becomes smaller and smaller, scaling as \(M_*^{-1/3}\). As the white dwarf approaches the mass limit \(M_{\mathrm{Ch}}\), the electrons become relativistic, and the dependence on mass becomes sharper than -1/3 as \(M_*\rightarrow M_{\mathrm{Ch}}\).
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Spurio, M. (2015). Acceleration Mechanisms and Galactic Cosmic Ray Sources. In: Particles and Astrophysics. Astronomy and Astrophysics Library. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08051-2_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08051-2_6
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