Theory of photon scattering in shearing plasma: Applications to GRBs

Abstract

We explore a new mechanism for photon energy gain in a relativistic plasma with velocity shear. This process takes place in optically thick plasma and resembles conventional Fermi acceleration, where photons undergo multiple scatterings between regions with varying Lorentz factors, leading to an overall energy increase. The resulting high-energy spectra from the escaped photons exhibit a power-law form. The mechanism is an alternative to the classical radiation spectrum from power-law accelerated particles, which can produce power-law spectra in sources like Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). By employing both numerical simulations and theoretical analysis, we calculate the expected spectra for GRBs, and show that they match the observed photon indices ($\beta$) at high energies.