Synchrotron radiation spectrum for galactic-sized plasma filaments--

Journal Article · Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1990 · IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/27.45503· OSTI ID:6905040

Peter, W ^[1]; Peratt, L ^[2]

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1. Univ. of California, Dept. of Physics, Irvine, Irvine, CA (US)
2. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)

A detailed analysis of the radiation spectrum for synchrotron-emitting electrons in galactic-sized Birkeland current filaments is presented. It is shown that the number of filaments required to thermalize the emission spectrum to blackbody is not reduced when a non-Maxwellian electron distribution is assumed. If the cosmic background radiation (CBR) spectrum (T = 2.76 K) is due to absorption and reemission of radiation from galactic-sized current filaments, higher order synchrotron modes are not as highly self-absorbed as lower-order modes, resulting in a distortion of the blackbody curve at higher frequencies. This is especially true for a non-Maxwellian distribution of electrons for which the emission coefficient at high frequencies is shown to be significantly less than that for a Maxwellian distribution. The deviation of the CBR spectrum in the high- frequency regime may thus be derivable from actual astrophysical parameters, such as filamentary magnetic fields and electron engergies in our model.

• OSTI ID: 6905040
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (USA), Vol. 18:1; ISSN 0093-3813
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BACKGROUND RADIATION
COSMOLOGY
MAXWELL EQUATIONS
SYNCHROTRON RADIATION
ELECTRON DENSITY
EMISSION SPECTRA
PLASMA FILAMENT
BREMSSTRAHLUNG
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EQUATIONS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
RADIATIONS
SPECTRA
640101* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Cosmic Radiation