The Crab Nebula: The Inner Knot and flares
Maxim Lyutikov
Purdue University


We can probe observationally and reproduce theoretically the most detailed properties of the Crab Nebula nearest to the pulsar- The Inner Knot. The tiny knot is indeed a bright spot on the surface of a quasi-stationary magnetic relativistic shock that efficiently accelerates particles. We develop a model of particle acceleration during explosive reconnection events in relativistic highly magnetized plasma and apply the model to explain the Crab gamma-ray flares. We argue that magnetic reconnection is an important, and possibly dominant process of particle acceleration in high energy astrophysical sources.

Date: Jeudi, le 2 février 2017
Heure: 15:30
Lieu: Université McGill
  McGill Space Institute (3550 University), Conference Room
Contact: Kelly Lepo