Multiband nonthermal radiative model of pulsar wind nebulae: Study of the effects of advection and diffusion

¹ College of Science, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, PR China
² Department of Astronomy, Key Laboratory of Astroparticle Physics of Yunnan Province, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, PR China
e-mail: lizhang@ynu.edu.cn
³ Department of Physics, Yuxi Normal University, Yuxi 653100, PR China

Received: 10 April 2021
Accepted: 23 August 2021

Abstract

Aims. Nonthermal radiation properties of pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) are studied in the frame of a time-dependent model with particle advection and diffusion.

Methods. The dynamical and radiative evolution of a PWN was self-consistently solved in the model. The time-dependent lepton (electrons and positrons) equation is described by particle injection, advection, diffusion, adiabatic loss, and radiative loss. Nonthermal emission from a PWN is mainly produced by the relativistic leptons through synchrotron radiation and inverse Compton process.

Results. The effect of particle transport including advection and diffusion was analyzed, showing that the particle transport process induces a decrease in the nebula flux, and that the total flux decreases with the increase in advection velocity and diffusion coefficient. Meanwhile, the particle transport processes may play an important role in modifying the spectrum of the emitted radiation at X-ray and TeV wavelengths, but only have slightly effects in radio and GeV bands. We applied our model to the three PWNe Crab nebula, 3C 58, and G54.1+0.3, and observed that the spectral energy distributions of photon emissions from the three PWNe are reproduced well. Our results indicate that (i) the particle cooling processes are dominated by adiabatic loss in lower-energy bands and synchrotron loss dominates for the higher-energy particles; and (ii) the particle transport processes are advection dominated, and a slow diffusion may occur within the Crab nebula, 3C 58, and G54.1+0.3.