Cosmic ray electron acceleration in the remnant of nova GK Persei?

dc.creatorKantharia, N. G.
dc.creatorAnupama, G. C.
dc.creatorSubramanian, Prasad
dc.date2005-08-16
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T02:18:28Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T02:18:28Z
dc.descriptionRadio observations of the nova remnant of GK Per around 1985 (epoch 1) have shown it to have a spectral index of -0.4 (S propto nu^alpha) at frequencies <1.4 GHz and a spectral index of -0.7 at frequencies >1.4 GHz (Seaquist et al 1989, Biermann et al 1995). This spectrum is either due to secondary electrons from p-p interactions (Biermann et al 1995) or due to the presence of at least two electron populations which dominate the emission at different frequencies. Our radio observations (Anupama & Kantharia 2005) of the remnant of GK Persei using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and archival Very Large Array (VLA) data show that the nova remnant has a low frequency (<1.3 GHz) spectral index alpha ~ -0.85 (in 2003; epoch 3) and a high frequency spectral index of alpha ~ -0.7 (1997; epoch 2). Moreover the higher frequencies show an annual secular decrease of ~ 2.1 % between epochs 1 and 2 whereas there is no change at 0.33 GHz. This suggests a significant evolution of the spectrum over 20 years. In this paper, we discuss a possible physical basis for this spectral evolution based on a comparison of the synchrotron loss and electron acceleration timescales.
dc.descriptionSubmitted to the Proceedings of the ICRC2005, Aug 3-10 2005, Pune, India
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0508348
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0508348
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/9498
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleCosmic ray electron acceleration in the remnant of nova GK Persei?
dc.typetext

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