Measuring Small-scale Turbulence in Supernova Remnants with Jitter Radiation
astro-ph.HE
Submitted: 2026-09-01
Updated: 2026-09-01
Comments: Submitted to PRL, comments welcome
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: Hard X-ray emission from Cas A has been attributed to jitter radiation, implying magnetic turbulence on scales near or below the ion Larmor radius.
Terminology
Abstract
Hard X-ray emission from Cas A has been attributed to jitter radiation, implying magnetic turbulence on scales near or below the ion Larmor radius. We propose these fields arise from ion-scale micro-instabilities (e.g., mirror and firehose) in the shock downstream, and use high-resolution hybrid simulations to demonstrate the generation of such small-scale turbulence. Its spectral index, once numerical dissipation is accounted for, is consistent with that inferred for Cas A, suggesting that jitter radiation is a direct probe of ion-scale turbulence in supernova remnants.
Sources
- Revisiting X-ray polarization of the shell of Cassiopeia A using spectropolarimetric analysis
- Compressible MHD Turbulence in Interstellar Plasmas
- Astrophysical gyrokinetics: kinetic and fluid turbulent cascades in magnetized weakly collisional plasmas
- Jitter radiation as an alternative mechanism for the nonthermal X-ray emission of Cassiopeia A
- Theory of "Jitter" Radiation from Small-Scale Random Magnetic Fields and Prompt Emission from Gamma-Ray Burst Shocks
- On the Jitter Radiation
- Computation of synthetic spectra from simulations of relativistic shocks
- Gamma-ray Burst Prompt Emission: Jitter Radiation in Stochastic Magnetic Field Revisited
- A kinetic approach to cosmic ray induced streaming instability at supernova shocks
- Cosmic ray acceleration and escape from supernova remnants
- Modeling the Saturation of the Bell Instability using Hybrid Simulations
- Firehose and Mirror Instabilities in a Collisionless Shearing Plasma
- Nonlinear growth of firehose and mirror fluctuations in turbulent galaxy-cluster plasmas
- Kinetic Simulations of Cosmic-Ray-Modified Shocks I: Hydrodynamics
- The Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE): Pre-Launch
- X-ray polarization in SN 1006 southwest shows spatial variations and differences with the radio band
- Probing Magnetic Fields in Young Supernova Remnants with IXPE
- From Shock to Synchrotron: a mini-review on magnetic turbulence in Supernova Remnants
- Analytical solutions for energy spectra of electrons accelerated by nonrelativistic shock-waves in shell type supernova remnants
- X-ray diagnostics of Cassiopeia A's "Green Monster": evidence for dense shocked circumstellar plasma
Related papers
- Numerical Studies of Accretion Flows onto a Neutron Star Engulfed in a Massive Star
- Collisionless Accretion of Finite-Angular-Momentum Plasma onto a Spinning Black Hole
- Impact of Magnetic Field Topology on Electromagnetic and Gravitational Waves from Binary Neutron Star Merger Remnants
- XRISM Resolve Spectroscopy of GX 5-1: Constraints on Iron Spectral Features in a Luminous Neutron-Star Binary
- SN 1006: A Cosmic Laboratory for Investigating Shock Acceleration Physics
- Neutrino Spectral Pinching in 3D Core-Collapse Supernovae: Late-Time Convergence, Failed-Explosion Signatures, and Viewing-Angle Dispersion