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Kinetic simulations of relativistic magnetic reconnection with synchrotron and inverse Compton cooling

Part of: Focus on Plasma Astrophysics Plasma physics under extreme conditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2018

Krzysztof Nalewajko Open the ORCID record for Krzysztof Nalewajko [Opens in a new window] ,
Yajie Yuan  and
Martyna Chruślińska
Krzysztof Nalewajko*
Affiliation:
Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Bartycka 18, 00-716 Warsaw, Poland
Yajie Yuan
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
Martyna Chruślińska
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw, al. Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warsaw, Poland
*
†Email address for correspondence: knalew@camk.edu.pl
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Abstract

First results are presented from kinetic numerical simulations of relativistic collisionless magnetic reconnection in a pair plasma that include radiation reaction from both synchrotron and inverse Compton (IC) processes, motivated by non-thermal high-energy astrophysical sources, including in particular blazars. These simulations are initiated from a configuration known as ‘ABC fields’ that evolves due to coalescence instability and generates thin current layers in its linear phase. Global radiative efficiencies, instability growth rates, time-dependent radiation spectra, lightcurves, variability statistics and the structure of current layers are investigated for a broad range of initial parameters. We find that the IC radiative signatures are generally similar to the synchrotron signatures. The luminosity ratio of IC to synchrotron spectral components, the Compton dominance, can be modified by more than one order of magnitude with respect to its nominal value. For very short cooling lengths, we find evidence for modification of the temperature profile across the current layers, no systematic compression of plasma density and very consistent profiles of the scalar product $\boldsymbol{E}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{B}$ of electric field $\boldsymbol{E}$ and magnetic field $\boldsymbol{B}$. We decompose the profiles of $\boldsymbol{E}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\boldsymbol{B}$ with the use of the Vlasov momentum equation, demonstrating a contribution from radiation reaction at the thickness scale consistent with the temperature profile.

Keywords

astrophysical plasmasplasma simulation
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 84 , Issue 3 , June 2018 , 755840301
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

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