Pulsar Wind Nebulae and Particle Acceleration in the Pulsar Magnetosphere

Abstract

This paper deals with the Crab Nebula problem to suggest that particle acceleration takes place not only at the inner shock but also over a larger region in the nebula with disordered magnetic field. Kennel and Cornoniti (1984) constructed a spherically symmetric model of the Crab Nebula and concluded that the pulsar wind which excites the nebular is kinetic-energy dominant (KED) because the nebula flow induced by KED wind is favorable to explain the nebula spectrum and expansion speed. This is true even with new Chandra observation, which provides newly the spatially resolved spectra. We have shown below with 3D modelling and the Chandra image that pure toroidal magnetic field and KED wind are incompatible with the Chandra observation.