TY  - GEN
ID  - heidok28953
Y1  - 2020///
TI  - On the Evolution and Observational Signatures of Cosmic Ray Electrons in Magnetohydrodynamical Simulations
CY  - Heidelberg
AV  - public
N2  - Cosmic ray (CR) electrons are ubiquitous in the universe and reveal key insights into the non-thermal physics. Their synchrotron radiation, bremsstrahlung, and inverse Compton emission shed light on the interstellar medium, on galaxies and galactic outflows, on galaxy clusters, and on active galactic nuclei. Models of these emission processes can be tested against observations with magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations. While dynamically important CR protons are often included in MHD simulations, CR electrons are rarely treated because their treatment requires a detailed numerical modeling of their spectra due to complex hysteresis effects. Within the scope of this work, I have developed the efficient post-processing code CREST that evolves spatially and temporally resolved CR electron spectra. This code allows a comparison of CR electron emission signatures to observations by means of multi-frequency spectra and morphology. Further, CREST enables to validate models of CR electron acceleration and to explore whether observations can be explained by leptonic or hadronic interactions. Hence, this work opens up a new capability for MHD simulations of dynamical systems that can be compared to radio, X-ray, and ?-ray observations. I apply CREST to three-dimensional MHD simulations of the supernova remnant of SN 1006. These show that a mixed leptonic-hadronic model explains best the observed ?-ray emission and that CR electrons, similar to CR protons, are preferentially accelerated in environments where the shock direction is quasi-parallel to the upstream magnetic field. In addition, the simulations show that a magnetic field amplification by a volume-filling turbulent dynamo is required and that the Bell amplification needs to be spatially confined to the shock. Both findings are necessary in order to match simultaneously radio, X-ray, and ?-ray observations.
UR  - https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/28953/
A1  - Winner, Georg Eckhard
ER  -