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Astrophysics > High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Title: Radiation Process in Relativistic MHD Waves: the Case of Circularly Polarized Alfvén Wave
(Submitted on 3 Mar 2024)
Abstract: Turbulence in highly magnetized plasma can be relativistic and induce an electric field comparable to the background magnetic field. Such a strong electric field can affect the emission process of non-thermal electrons. As the first step toward elucidating the emission process in relativistic turbulence, we study the radiation process of electrons in relativistic circularly polarized Alfv\'{e}n waves. While the induced electric field boosts the average energy of low-energy electrons with a Larmor radius smaller than the wavelength, the emissivity for such electrons is suppressed because of the elongated gyro-motion trajectory. The trajectory of high-energy electrons is shaken by the small-scale electric field, which enhances the emissivity. Since the effective Lorentz factor of $E\times B$ drift is $\simeq\sqrt{2}$ in the circularly polarized Alfv\'{e}n waves, the deviation from the standard synchrotron emission is not so prominent. However, a power-law energy injection in the waves can produce a concave photon spectrum, which is similar to the GeV extra component seen in GRB spectra. If the turbulence electric field is responsible for the GeV extra component in GRBs, the estimates of the typical electron energy and magnetic field should be largely altered.
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