Relativistic Shear Flow between Electron–Ion and Electron–Positron Plasmas and Astrophysical Applications

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dc.citation.articleNumber90en_US
dc.citation.issueNumber2en_US
dc.citation.journalTitleThe Astrophysical Journalen_US
dc.citation.volumeNumber847en_US
dc.contributor.authorLiang, Edisonen_US
dc.contributor.authorFu, Wenen_US
dc.contributor.authorBöttcher, Markusen_US
dc.date.accessioned2017-10-27T13:26:31Zen_US
dc.date.available2017-10-27T13:26:31Zen_US
dc.date.issued2017en_US
dc.description.abstractWe present particle-in-cell simulation results of relativistic shear boundary layers between electron–ion and electron–positron plasmas and discuss their potential applications to astrophysics. Specifically, we find that in the case of a fast electron–positron spine surrounded by a slow-moving or stationary electron–ion sheath, lepton acceleration proceeds in a highly anisotropic manner due to electromagnetic fields created at the shear interface. While the highest-energy leptons still produce a beaming pattern (as seen in the quasi-stationary frame of the sheath) of order 1/Γ, where Γ is the bulk Lorentz factor of the spine, for lower-energy particles, the beaming is much less pronounced. This is in stark contrast to the case of pure electron–ion shear layers, in which anisotropic particle acceleration leads to significantly narrower beaming patterns than 1/Γ for the highest-energy particles. In either case, shear-layer acceleration is expected to produce strongly angle-dependent lepton (hence, emanating radiation) spectra, with a significantly harder spectrum in the forward direction than viewed from larger off-axis angles, much beyond the regular Doppler boosting effect from a co-moving isotropic lepton distribution. This may solve the problem of the need for high (and apparently arbitrarily chosen) minimum Lorentz factors of radiating electrons, often plaguing current blazar and GRB jet modeling efforts.en_US
dc.identifier.citationLiang, Edison, Fu, Wen and Böttcher, Markus. "Relativistic Shear Flow between Electron–Ion and Electron–Positron Plasmas and Astrophysical Applications." <i>The Astrophysical Journal,</i> 847, no. 2 (2017) IOP Publishing: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa8772.en_US
dc.identifier.digitalLiang_2017_ApJ_847_90en_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa8772en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/97809en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherIOP Publishingen_US
dc.rightsArticle is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.en_US
dc.titleRelativistic Shear Flow between Electron–Ion and Electron–Positron Plasmas and Astrophysical Applicationsen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.type.dcmiTexten_US
dc.type.publicationpublisher versionen_US
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