Axially symmetric relativistic MHD simulations of Pulsar Wind Nebulae in Supernova Remnants. On the origin of torus and jet-like features

By L. Del Zanna, E. Amato, N. Bucciantini. 2004

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The structure and the evolution of Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe) are studied by means of two-dimensional axisym- metric relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) simulations. After the first imaging of the Crab Nebula with Chandra ,a growing number of objects has been found to show in the X-rays spatial features such as rings and jets, that clearly cannot be accounted for within the standard framework of one-dimensional semi-analytical models. The most promising explanation suggested so far is based on the combined effects of the latitude dependence of the pulsar wind energy flux, shaping the wind termination shock and naturally providing a higher equatorial emission, and of the wind magnetization, likely responsible for the jet collimation by hoop stresses downstream of the shock. This scenario is investigated here by following the evolution of a PWN interacting with the confining Supernova Remnant (SNR), from the free expansion to the beginning of the reverberation phase. Our results confirm the oblate shape of the wind termination shock and the formation of a polar jet with supersonic velocities (v ≈ 0.5−0.7c) for high enough values of the equatorial wind magnetization parameter (σ > 0.01).

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

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Citations in the corpus

Pulsar Wind Nebulae as Cosmic Pevatrons: A Current Sheet’s Tale (2012, background): “Nevertheless the wind behaves at its termination shock as if σ at that distance is small— MHD models of the nebulae suggest σ at the termination shock is on the order of 0.02 in the Crab Nebula (e.g. Del Zanna et al. 2004) and similar values are plausible in other systems.”
Magnetic Fields in Supernova Remnants and Pulsar-Wind Nebulae (2011, background): “The wind flows back along the surface of the termination shock toward the poles (Komissarov & Lyubarsky 2003; Del Zanna et al. 2004, 2006), at which points it is collimated into jets by hoop stress (the “toothpaste effect; Camus et al. 2009).”
ACCELERATION OF PARTICLES AT THE TERMINATION SHOCK OF A RELATIVISTIC STRIPED WIND (2011, background): “Res., 103, 29429 Del Zanna, L., Amato, E., & Bucciantini, N. 2004, A&A, 421, 1063 Drake, J. F., Swisdak, M., Che, H., & Shay, M. A. 2006, Nature, 443, 553 Gallant, Y. A., Hoshino, M., Langdon, A. B., Arons, J., & Max, C. E. 1992, ApJ, 391, 73 Giannios, D. 2010, MNRAS, 408, L46 Goldreich, P. & Julian”
Magnetized relativistic jets and long-duration GRBs from magnetar spin-down during core-collapse supernovae (2009, background): “…the total pressure in the nebula is lower at the equator than at the pole while for high σ the wind ram pressure is higher at the equator (see Del Zanna et al. 2004 for a detailed discussion of the shape of the TS); second, the fast surface is closer to the central engine in the equator ( 60…”
The Crab Nebula as a standard candle in very high-energy astrophysics (2010, methodology): “A straightforward extension of the spherical KC84 model would be to incorporate an asymmetric flow with a modulated magnetization (see e.g. Komissarov & Lyubarsky 2004; Del Zanna et al. 2004; Del Zanna et al. 2006; Volpi et al. 2008).”
THE MAXIMUM ENERGY OF ACCELERATED PARTICLES IN RELATIVISTIC COLLISIONLESS SHOCKS (2013, background): “In this regard, we argue that the wind termination shock might form in a macroscopically turbulent medium, with the outer scale of the turbulence driven by the large-scale shear flows in the nebula (Komissarov & Lyubarsky 2004; Del Zanna et al. 2004; Camus et al. 2009).”
PARTICLE ACCELERATION IN RELATIVISTIC MAGNETIZED COLLISIONLESS PAIR SHOCKS: DEPENDENCE OF SHOCK ACCELERATION ON MAGNETIC OBLIQUITY (2009, background): “Recent relativistic MHD simulations of PWNe (Komissarov & Lyubarsky 2003, 2004; Del Zanna et al. 2004) have shown that polar jets with the observed velocities can develop provided that the magnetization of the relativistic (γ0 & 106) electron-positron pulsar wind is large enough (σ & 0.01) to collim”
EFFICIENCY OF MAGNETIC TO KINETIC ENERGY CONVERSION IN A MONOPOLE MAGNETOSPHERE (2009, background): “This notion of a visible jet emerging directly from the pulsar (Lyubarsky & Eichler 2001) is an alternative model to the more recent view that the observed jet is caused by a post-shock polar backflow withσ & 0.01 that is guided by hoop stresses and forced to converge toward (and rise up along) the ”
The Piecewise Parabolic Method for Multidimensional Relativistic Fluid Dynamics (2005, background): “…sources (Begelman et al. 1984), jets and accretion flows around massive compact objects (Koide et al. 1999; Meier et al. 2001), pulsar winds (Del Zanna et al. 2004; Bogovalov et al. 2005), gamma-ray bursts (Aloy et al. 2000; Zhang et al. 2003; Mizuno et al. 2004), as well as particle beams…”
Relativistic Shocks: Particle Acceleration and Magnetization (2015, background): “In this regard, we argue that the wind termination shock might form in a macroscopically turbulent medium, with the outer scale of the turbulence driven by the large-scale shear flows in the nebula (Komissarov and Lyubarsky 2004; Del Zanna et al. 2004; Camus et al. 2009).”
ECHO: a Eulerian conservative high-order scheme for general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics and magnetodynamics (2007, background): “The HLL numerical flux for the magnetic field can be then defined as Ez = −a x +V xLByL + ax−V xRByR − ax+ax−(ByR − ByL) ax+ + a x− + ay+V yLBxL + ay−V yRBxR − ay+ay−(BxR − BxL) ay+ + a y − , (61) which coincides with the four-state formula presented in Londrillo & Del Zanna (2004).”