2003/06/30 by H. J. Völk, H. J. Voelk, E. G. Berezhko +1 · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20031082
published as Astron.Astrophys. 409 (2003) 563-571 · 10 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Astronomy and Astrophyics; Corrected typos, references changed
arxiv created 2003/09/01 · openalex publication_date 2003/09/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The injection rate of suprathermal protons into the diffusive shock acceleration process should vary strongly over the surface of supernova remnant shocks. These variations and the absolute value of the injection rate are investigated. In the simplest case, like for SN 1006, the shock can be approximated as spherical in a uniform large-scale magnetic field. The injection rate depends strongly on the shock obliquity and diminishes as the angle between the ambient field and the shock normal increases. Therefore efficient particle injection, which leads to conversion of a significant fraction of the kinetic energy at a shock surface element, arises only in relatively small regions near the “poles”, reducing the overall CR production. The sizes of these regions depend strongly on the random background field and the Alfvén wave turbulence generated due to the CR streaming instability. For the cases of SN 1006 and Tycho's SNR they correspond to about 20, and for Cas A to between 10 and 20 percent of the entire shock surface. In a first approximation, the CR production rate, calculated under the assumption of spherical symmetry, has therefore to be renormalized by this factor, while the shock as such remains roughly spherical.