Open AccessEfficiency of cosmic ray reflections from an ultrarelativistic shock wave
Author(s) -
Bednarz J.,
Ostrowski M.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.03104.x
Subject(s) - physics , cosmic ray , acceleration , shock wave , particle acceleration , shock (circulatory) , lorentz factor , astrophysics , lorentz transformation , shock waves in astrophysics , computational physics , nuclear physics , classical mechanics , mechanics , medicine
The process of cosmic ray acceleration up to energies in excess of 10 20 eV at relativistic shock waves with large Lorentz factors, Γ≫1, requires ∼Γ 2 particle energy gains at single reflections from the shock (cf. Gallant & Achterberg). In the present Letter, by applying numerical simulations we address an efficiency problem arising for such models. The actual efficiency of the acceleration process is expected to be substantially lower than the estimates of previous authors.