1. Turbulence and particle acceleration in giant radio haloes: the origin of seed electrons
- Author
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Christoph Pfrommer, Anders Pinzke, and S. Peng Oh
- Subjects
Physics ,High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) ,Turbulence ,Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,Astronomy ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Cosmic ray ,Astrophysics ,Electron ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,01 natural sciences ,Particle acceleration ,Acceleration ,Space and Planetary Science ,0103 physical sciences ,010306 general physics ,Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics - Abstract
About 1/3 of X-ray-luminous clusters show smooth, Mpc-scale radio emission, known as giant radio haloes. One promising model for radio haloes is Fermi-II acceleration of seed relativistic electrons by compressible turbulence. The origin of these seed electrons has never been fully explored. Here, we integrate the Fokker-Planck equation of the cosmic ray (CR) electron and proton distributions when post-processing cosmological simulations of cluster formation, and confront them with radio surface brightness and spectral data of Coma. For standard assumptions, structure formation shocks lead to a seed electron population which produces too centrally concentrated radio emission. Matching observations requires modifying properties of the CR population (rapid streaming; enhanced CR electron acceleration at shocks) or turbulence (increasing turbulent-to-thermal energy density with radius), but at the expense of fine-tuning. In a parameter study, we find that radio properties are exponentially sensitive to the amplitude of turbulence, which is inconsistent with small scatter in scaling relations. This sensitivity is removed if we relate the acceleration time to the turbulent dissipation time. In this case, turbulence above a threshold value provides a fixed amount of amplification; observations could thus potentially constrain the unknown CR seed population. To obtain sufficient acceleration, the turbulent magneto-hydrodynamics cascade has to terminate by transit time damping on CRs, i.e., thermal particles must be scattered by plasma instabilities. Understanding the small scatter in radio halo scaling relations may provide a rich source of insight on plasma processes in clusters., 18 pages, 7 figures, 1 table. This article supersedes arXiv:1503.07870, and has a significantly enlarged analysis and presentation. To be published in MNRAS, ref. MN-15-2504-MJ.R3
- Published
- 2016
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