The Crab Nebula: The Inner Knot and flares
Maxim Lyutikov
Purdue University
We can probe observationally and reproduce theoretically the most detailed properties of the Crab Nebula nearest to the pulsar- The Inner Knot. The tiny knot is indeed a bright spot on the surface of a quasi-stationary magnetic relativistic shock that efficiently accelerates particles.
We develop a model of particle acceleration during explosive reconnection events in relativistic highly magnetized plasma and apply the model to explain the Crab gamma-ray flares. We argue that magnetic reconnection is an important, and possibly dominant process of particle acceleration in high energy astrophysical sources.
Date: | Thursday, 2 February 2017 |
Time: | 15:30 |
Where: | McGill University |
| McGill Space Institute (3550 University), Conference Room |
Contact: | Kelly Lepo |
|