Speaker
John Kirk
(Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik)
Description
A new theory of the gamma-ray flares from the Crab Nebula is presented, in which the trigger is a sudden drop in the mass-loading of the pulsar wind. The current required to maintain wave activity in the wind is then carried by very few particles of high Lorentz factor. On impacting the Nebula, these particles produce a tightly beamed, high luminosity burst of hard gamma-rays, which reproduces the spectrum, variability timescale and power of the most intense flares. Similar flares potentially contribute to the gamma-ray emission from other powerful pulsars, such as J0537$-$6910 and B0540$-$69.
Primary author
John Kirk
(Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik)
