Abstract
Electromagnetic cascades possibly occurring near accreting compact objects have been discovered to show limit cycle behaviour. The power from accelerated protons gets converted by the cascade into soft radiation (X-rays and below) if the photon compactness is sufficiently large. Then the proton-photon system may develop limit cycles much like a prey-predator system with each component interchangebly dominating. This causes periodic large amplitude short time variability of the nonthermal luminosity from a compact object even if the acceleration or injection process is completely steady. Results both from detailed Monte Carlo simulations and from a simple phenomenological model are presented.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Blandford, R. D., and Eichler, D. 1987, Phys. Rep., 154, 1.
Done, C., Ghisellini, G., and Fabian, A. C. 1990, M. N. R. A. S., 245, 1.
Ellison, D. C. and Eichler, D. 1984, Ap. J., 286, 691.
Ghisellini, G. 1989, M. N. R. A. S., 238, 449.
Kazanas, D., and Ellison, D. C. 1986, Ap. J., 304, 178.
Lightman, A. P., and Zdziarski, A. A. 1987, Ap. J., 319, 643.
Mannheim, K., and Biermann, P. I. 1989, Astr. Ap., 221, 211.
Sikora, M., Kirk, J. G., Begelman, M. C., and Schneider, P. 1987, Ap. J. (Letters), 320, L81.
Stern, B.E. 1985, Sov. Astr., 29, 306.
Stern, B.E. 1988, NORDITA preprint 88/51.
Svensson, R. 1987, M. N. R. A. S., 227, 403.
Svensson, R. 1990, in Physical Processes in Hot Cosmic Plasmas, eds. W. Brinkmann, A. C. Fabian, and F. Giovannelli (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, p. 357.
Zdziarski, A. A. 1986, Ap. J., 305, 45.
Zdziarski, A. A., and Lightman, A. P. 1985, Ap. J. (Letters), 294, L79.
Zdziarski, A. A., Ghisellini, G., George, I. M., Svensson, R., Fabian, A. C., and Done, C. 1990, Ap. J. (Letters), 363, L1.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer-Verlag
About this paper
Cite this paper
Stern, B., Svensson, R. (1991). Limit cycles in electromagnetic cascades in compact objects. In: Zdziarski, A.A., Sikora, M. (eds) Relativistic Hadrons in Cosmic Compact Objects. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 391. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-54789-4_51
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-54789-4_51
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-54789-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46448-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive