Astrophysical ZeV acceleration in the relativistic jet from an accreting supermassive blackhole

Abstract

An accreting supermassive blackhole, the central engine of active galactic nucleus (AGN), is capable of exciting extreme amplitude Alfven waves whose wavelength (wave packet) size is characterized by its clumpiness. The pondermotive force and wakefield are driven by these Alfven waves propagating in the AGN (blazar) jet and accelerate protons/nuclei to extreme energies beyond Zettaelectron volt (ZeV= 10 21 eV). Such acceleration is prompt, localized, and does not suffer from the multiple scattering/bending enveloped in the Fermi acceleration that causes excessive synchrotron radiation loss beyond 10 19 eV. The production rate of ZeV cosmic rays is found to be consistent with the observed gamma-ray luminosity function of blazars and their time variabilities.

Observational signatures of gamma-rays from bright blazars and wakefield theory

“…Even though the time scale varies over orders of magnitude, this phenomenon is universal. In fact, Ebisuzaki & Tajima (2014a) predicts that all these events are universally based on the wakefield excitation in the jets sharing the common acceleration mechanism, which is the basis for this universality.…”

“…However, we note that the group velocities of various EM waves with different frequencies are nearly equal to c in the one-dimensional case. Furthermore, as explained in the theory of Ebisuzaki & Tajima (2014a), the pulse is generated by the striking of an acceleration of matter ejected by a major disruption of the AGN accretion disk. As such, an eruption could be represented by one major bang (though could be a series of such) which results in a predominance of a single pulse with a typical length of the disk thickness.…”

“…On the other hand, the recent wakefield acceleration mechanism (Ebisuzaki & Tajima 2014a) has been suggested of the genesis of highest energy cosmic rays accelerated via wakefields generated by the Alfven shock emanated from the jet from an AGN accretion disk disruptions. It has an embedded feature of accelerating both protons (ions) as well as electrons simultaneously.…”

Differences in 1D electron plasma wake field acceleration in MeV versus GeV and linear versus blowout regimes

“…Here we argue that in some laboratory, see e.g. Figure 1 from Corde et al [16], and probably most astrophysical situations such as jets in the vicinity of black holes [11,12] and flares in solar atmosphere [13], plasma wakefield acceleration of electrons is one dimensional. Namely, variation transverse to the beam's motion can be ignored.…”

Electron plasma wake field acceleration in solar coronal and chromospheric plasmas

“…This includes astrophysical ZeV acceleration in the relativistic jet from an accreting supermassive blackhole [10,11], focusing on ponderomotive acceleration by relativistic waves [12] and elecromagnetic aspects [13]. A comprehensive, recent review is available [14].…”