Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Astronomical background
- Part II Physical processes
- 5 Ionisation losses
- 6 Radiation of accelerated charged particles and bremsstrahlung of electrons
- 7 The dynamics of charged particles in magnetic fields
- 8 Synchrotron radiation
- 9 Interactions of high energy photons
- 10 Nuclear interactions
- 11 Aspects of plasma physics and magnetohydrodynamics
- Part III High energy astrophysics in our Galaxy
- Part IV Extragalactic high energy astrophysics
- Appendix: Astronomical conventions and nomenclature
- Bibliography
- Name index
- Object index
- Index
8 - Synchrotron radiation
from Part II - Physical processes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Astronomical background
- Part II Physical processes
- 5 Ionisation losses
- 6 Radiation of accelerated charged particles and bremsstrahlung of electrons
- 7 The dynamics of charged particles in magnetic fields
- 8 Synchrotron radiation
- 9 Interactions of high energy photons
- 10 Nuclear interactions
- 11 Aspects of plasma physics and magnetohydrodynamics
- Part III High energy astrophysics in our Galaxy
- Part IV Extragalactic high energy astrophysics
- Appendix: Astronomical conventions and nomenclature
- Bibliography
- Name index
- Object index
- Index
Summary
The synchrotron radiation of ultra-relativistic electrons dominates much of high energy astrophysics. The radiation, which was first observed in early betatron experiments, is the emission of high energy electrons gyrating in a magnetic field and is the process responsible for the radio emission of our Galaxy, of supernova remnants and extragalactic radio sources. It is also the origin of the non-thermal continuum optical emission of the Crab Nebula and quite possibly of the optical and X-ray continuum emission of quasars. The term non-thermal emission is frequently used in high energy astrophysics and is conventionally taken to mean the continuum radiation of a distribution of particles with a non-Maxwellian energy spectrum. Continuum emission is often referred to as ‘non-thermal’ if its spectrum cannot be accounted for by the spectrum of thermal bremsstrahlung or black-body radiation.
It is a major undertaking to work out all the detailed properties of synchrotron radiation. For more complete treatments, the enthusiast is referred to the books by Bekefi (1966), by Pacholczyk (1970) and by Rybicki and Lightman (1979), and to the review articles by Ginzburg and Syrovatskii (1965, 1969). Many of the most important results can, however, be derived by simple physical arguments (Scheuer, 1966). First of all, let us work out the total energy loss rate.
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- High Energy Astrophysics , pp. 193 - 227Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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