Stuttgart 2012 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 16: Astrophysik I

EP 16.6: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 15. März 2012, 11:45–12:00, V55.21

The influence of Klein-Nishina steps on the spatial diffusion of galactic cosmic ray electrons — •Patrick Blies and Reinhard Schlickeiser — Institute for Theoretical Astro and Space Physics, Ruhr-University Bochum

The full Klein-Nishina cross section for the inverse Compton scattering interactions of electrons implies a significant reduction of the electron energy loss rate compared to the Thomson limit when the electron energy exceeds the critical Klein-Nishina energy E_K=0.27m_e²c⁴/(k_BT), where T denotes the temperature of the photon graybody distribution.

We investigate the influence of the Klein-Nishina reduction on the solution of the steady-state spatial diffusion transport equation for relativistic electrons. The modified electron spectrum for the case of only one relevant optical target photon field for the inverse Compton losses plus the unavoidable synchrotron losses in the energy range of interest are derived in terms of the Green’s function solution for one-, two- and three-dimensional spatial diffusion. The modifications to the solutions of the one- and three-dimensional diffusion equation are calculated for a single point source of monoenergetic electrons. It is shown that orders of magnitude enhancements in the local electron intensity occur at electron energies greater than the critical Klein-Nishina energy E_K.

These drastic Klein-Nishina enhancements are potentially interesting for determining the contribution of point sources such as dark matter sources and/or electromagnetic particle accelerators to the local electron intensity and the local positron fraction.