Radiation from accelerated particles in relativistic jets with shocks, shear-flow, and reconnection

¹ Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 320 Sparkman Drive, ZP12, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA
² Department of Physics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA
³ Institute of Space Science, Atomistilor 409, Bucharest-Magurele 077125, Romania
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, KS 66045, USA
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
⁶ Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, South Korea
⁷ Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN, ul. Radzikowskiego 152, 31-342 Kraków, Poland
⁸ Institute of Astronomy National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30013, R.O.C
⁹ Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
¹⁰ LUTH, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, 5 place Jules Jansen, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France
¹¹ Institue of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24/25, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany
¹² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA

Abstract

We investigated particle acceleration and shock structure associated with an unmagnetized relativistic jet propagating into an unmagnetized plasma. Strong magnetic fields generated in the trailing shock contribute to the electrons transverse deflection and acceleration. We have calculated, self-consistently, the radiation from electrons accelerated in these turbulent magnetic fields. We found that the synthetic spectra depend on the bulk Lorentz factor of the jet, its temperature and strength of the generated magnetic fields. We have also investigated accelerated electrons in strong magnetic fields generated by kinetic shear (Kelvin-Helmholtz) instabilities. The calculated properties of the emerging radiation will guide our understanding of the complex time evolution and/or spectral structure in gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets in general, and supernova remnants.