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Very high energy proton acceleration in Vela-type pulsar wind nebulae.

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Title: Very high energy proton acceleration in Vela-type pulsar wind nebulae.
Authors: Bykov, A.M.1 (AUTHOR) byk@astro.ioffe.ru, Fursov, A.N.1 (AUTHOR) a.n.fursov@mail.ioffe.ru, Levenfish, K.P.1 (AUTHOR) ksen@astro.ioffe.ru, Petrov, A.E.1 (AUTHOR) a.e.petrov@mail.ioffe.ru
Source: Advances in Space Research. Apr2026, Vol. 77 Issue 8, p8406-8418. 13p.
Subjects: Particle acceleration, Nebulae, Cosmic rays, Crab Nebula, X-ray astronomy, Magnetohydrodynamics, Relativistic astrophysics
Abstract: High-quality measurements of cosmic ray (CR) fluxes have revealed a number of features in the spectra of protons, leptons, and nuclei. These can be due to contributions of nearby CR accelerators over the CR sea produced by the galactic supernova remnants. Pulsars, their relativistic winds, and their bright synchrotron nebulae are among the candidate sources of CRs. The structure of two powerful pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) created by the pulsars Crab and Vela is studied with arcsecond resolution by Chandra X-ray Observatory. We constructed a numerical relativistic ideal MHD model of PWNe which reproduces the observed X-ray morphology of the Vela nebula, a prototype of nebulae with a double X-ray torus. The spatial and temporal resolution of the simulated MHD flows with frozen-in magnetic fields allowed us to study the confinement and acceleration of multi-TeV cosmic ray protons in nebulae belonging to the class of double-torus objects. We directly solved the equation of motion for individual CR particles injected from the central part of the PWN and propagating through the simulated MHD flows. It is shown that very high energy protons can be confined within a double-torus nebula and accelerated to sub-PeV energies in its shear flows associated with regular large-scale vortices. The model treats the CR protons as test particles and therefore may be considered as the minimal model of CR acceleration in double-torus type PWNe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database: Engineering Source
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Abstract:High-quality measurements of cosmic ray (CR) fluxes have revealed a number of features in the spectra of protons, leptons, and nuclei. These can be due to contributions of nearby CR accelerators over the CR sea produced by the galactic supernova remnants. Pulsars, their relativistic winds, and their bright synchrotron nebulae are among the candidate sources of CRs. The structure of two powerful pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) created by the pulsars Crab and Vela is studied with arcsecond resolution by Chandra X-ray Observatory. We constructed a numerical relativistic ideal MHD model of PWNe which reproduces the observed X-ray morphology of the Vela nebula, a prototype of nebulae with a double X-ray torus. The spatial and temporal resolution of the simulated MHD flows with frozen-in magnetic fields allowed us to study the confinement and acceleration of multi-TeV cosmic ray protons in nebulae belonging to the class of double-torus objects. We directly solved the equation of motion for individual CR particles injected from the central part of the PWN and propagating through the simulated MHD flows. It is shown that very high energy protons can be confined within a double-torus nebula and accelerated to sub-PeV energies in its shear flows associated with regular large-scale vortices. The model treats the CR protons as test particles and therefore may be considered as the minimal model of CR acceleration in double-torus type PWNe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:02731177
DOI:10.1016/j.asr.2025.08.046