High Energy Astrophysics -
Fall
2006
Homework #7 - due November 28
1. Find the change in energy of a relativistic particle which
bounces off a heavy wall which is moving with a velocity V. Assume that the angle of
incidence equals the angle of reflection.
2. The winds flowing form young pulsars are thought to produce
strong shocks which can accelerate relativistic particles. Is the
maximum energy to which particles can be accelerated likely to be
higher in pulsar or a supernova?
3. Show that the log(N>S) versus log(S) distribution for homogenously
distributed sources has an exponent of -3/2.
4. Calculate the peak luminosity of a gamma-ray burst at a
redshift of 3.4 with a peak photon flux of 2.3 photons cm-2 s-1
in the 50 to 300 keV band.