On the novel mechanism of acceleration of cosmic particles

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new multi-stage mechanism for accelerating particles in the magnetospheres of AGN and pulsars, achieving energies up to 10^21 eV with minimal energy losses.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model combining centrifugal excitation of Langmuir waves and Langmuir collapse for particle acceleration in astrophysical magnetospheres.

Findings

Electrons can reach energies of 10^18 eV in pulsars.

Protons can be accelerated up to 10^21 eV in AGN magnetospheres.

Energy losses are negligible, allowing efficient acceleration.

Abstract

A novel model of particle acceleration in the rotating magnetospheres of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and pulsars is constructed. The particle energies may be boosted up to enormous energies in a several step mechanism. In the first stage, the Langmuir waves are centrifugally excited and amplified by means of a parametric process that efficiently pumps rotational energy to excite electrostatic fields. By considering the pulsars it is shown that the Langmuir waves very soon Landau damp on the relativistic electrons already present in a magnetosphere. It has been found that the process is so efficient that no energy losses might affect the mechanism of particle acceleration. Applying typical parameters for young pulsars we have shown that by means of this process the electrons might achieve energies of the order of $10^{18}$ eV. The situation in AGN magnetospheres is slightly different. In the second stage, the process of "Langmuir collapse" develops, creating appropriate conditions for transferring electric energy to boost up already high proton energies to much higher values. As in the previous case, one can show that various energy losses are relatively weak, and do not impose any significant constraints on maximum achievable proton energies of the order of $10^{21}$ eV.