Jitter radiation: towards TeV-photons of gamma-ray bursts

Abstract

ABSTRACT The synchrotron mechanism has the radiation limit of about 160 MeV, and it is not possible to explain the very high energy (VHE) photons that are emitted by high-energy objects. Inverse Compton scattering as a traditional process is applied for the explanation of the VHE emission. In this paper, jitter radiation, the relativistic electron radiation in the random and small-scale magnetic field, is proposed to be a possible mechanism to produce VHE photons. The jitter radiation frequency is associated with the perturbation field. The spectral index of the jitter radiation is dominated by the kinetic turbulence. We utilize the jitter radiation to explain the gamma-ray burst (GRB 190114C and GRB 180720B) VHE emissions that were recently detected by the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. We suggest that this mechanism can be applied to other kinds of VHE sources.