Crab nebula gamma-ray flares as relativistic reconnection minijets
Crab nebula gamma-ray flares as relativistic reconnection minijets
The unusually short durations, high luminosities, and high photon energies of the Crab Nebula gamma-ray flares require relativistic bulk motion of the emitting plasma. We explain the Crab flares as the result of randomly oriented relativistic "minijets" originating from reconnection events in a magnetically dominated plasma. We develop a statistical …