Astrophysical Evidence of Wakefield Acceleration in Galactic and Extragalactic Jets via Gamma Rays and UHECRs

TL;DR

This paper provides evidence that wakefield acceleration explains high-energy emissions and cosmic rays in various astrophysical jets, supported by six case studies across a broad mass range, highlighting a universal acceleration mechanism.

Contribution

It demonstrates that wakefield acceleration is a unifying process explaining high-energy phenomena in diverse astrophysical objects regardless of their mass.

Findings

Wakefield acceleration explains gamma-ray and UHECR emissions.

Electrons and protons can be accelerated to very high energies.

Observational data aligns well with theoretical predictions.

Abstract

We present six case studies from a broad mass range ($1 - 10^9$ $M_\odot$) of astrophysical objects, each of which exhibit signs of jets and emit intense high energy gamma rays ($>10$ GeV). Many of these objects also emit spatially identifiable ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). In all cases it is found that wakefield acceleration (WFA) explains both the global properties and details. For blazars, we also explain the temporal structure of these signals, which includes neutrinos, and the correlations in their "bursts" and anti-correlation in flux and index. Blazars ($\sim 10^9$ $M_\odot$), radio galaxies ($\sim 10^8\, M_{\odot}$), Seyfert galaxies ($\sim 10^6 \,M_{\odot}$), starburst galaxies ($\sim 10^{3}\, M_{\odot}$), down to microquasars ($1 \sim 10$ $M_\odot$) interestingly exhibit the same physics since the nature of the accretion and acceleration is independent of the mass, aside from maximum values. It is possible to accelerate electrons to energies much greater than $10$ GeV, and protons beyond $10^{20}$ eV with WFA. We compare observational values with theoretical ones to illustrate they are in good agreement. This mechanism is also accompanied by related emissions, such as high-energy pin-pointed neutrinos, time varying radio, optical, and X-ray emissions, opening an opportunity to characterize these astrophysical objects via multi-messenger approaches.