2002/01/15 by Yves Gallant, Yves A. Gallant, Gallant, Yves A. · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0201243
17 pages, 4 figures. To appear in "Relativistic Flows in Astrophysics", A.W. Guthmann, M. Georganopoulos, A. Marcowith and K. Manolokou, eds., Lecture Notes in Pysics, Springer Verlag
arxiv created 2002/01/15 · openalex publication_date 2002/01/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
I review the current status of Fermi acceleration theory at relativistic shocks. I first discuss the relativistic shock jump conditions, then describe the non-relativistic Fermi mechanism and the differences introduced by relativistic flows. I present numerical calculations of the accelerated particle spectrum, and examine the maximum energy attainable by this process. I briefly consider the minimum energy for Fermi acceleration, and a possible electron pre-acceleration mechanism.