Synchrotron Self-Comptonized Emission of Low Energy Cosmic Ray Electrons in the Universe: I) Individual Sources
Abstract
(Abridged) Most of the Universe's populations of low energy cosmic ray electrons in the energy range of 1-100 MeV still manage to elude from detection by our instruments, since their synchrotron emission is at too low frequencies. We investigate a mechanism which can lead to observable emission of such electron populations: synchrotron-self Comptonization (SSC). The inverse Compton (IC) scattering can shift an otherwise unobservable low-frequency 10 kHz-10 MHz photons into observable radio, infrared (IR) or even more energetic wave-bands. The resulting emission should be polarized. We also consider IC scattering of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the cosmic radio background (CRB). Electron spectral aging due to synchrotron, IC and adiabatic losses or gains influences the resulting spectrum. The predicted radiation spectrum is a function of the history of the source, of the low energy spectrum of relativistic electrons, and of redshift. It has typically two maxima, and a negative decrement in between at CMB frequencies. Detection will give a sensitive probe of the environment of radio galaxies. Fossil remnants of powerful radio galaxies are promising detection candidates, especially when they are embedded in a dense intra-cluster medium (ICM). GHz peaked sources (GPS) have very low SSC luminosities, which may, however, extend into the X-ray or even the gamma ray regime. Clusters of galaxies with relativistic electron populations may be detectable. Fossil radio plasma released by our own Galaxy could be revealed by its large angular scale SSC flux. Some of these objects might appear as foreground sources during coming PLANCK and balloon based CMB surveys. ALMA and HERSCHEL might give detailed information about the low energy electron population and mechanisms of their origin inside these sources.Keywords
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