Cosmic Ray Acceleration and Nonthermal Radiation at Accretion Shocks in the Outer Regions of Galaxy Clusters

Cosmology models predict that external accretion shocks form in the outer region of galaxy clusters owing to supersonic gas infall from filaments and voids in the cosmic web. They are characterized by high sonic and Alfvénic Mach numbers, M _s ∼ 10–10 ^2 and M _A ∼ 10 ^2 –10 ^3 , and propagate into weakly magnetized plasmas of β ≡ P _g / P _B ≳ 10 ^2 . Although strong accretion shocks are expected to be efficient accelerators of cosmic rays (CRs), nonthermal signatures of shock-accelerated CRs around clusters have not been confirmed, and detailed acceleration physics at such shocks has yet to be understood. In this study, we first establish through two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations that at strong high- β shocks electrons can be pre-energized via stochastic Fermi acceleration owing to the ion Weibel instability in the shock transition region, possibly followed by injection into diffusive shock acceleration. Hence, we propose that the models derived from conventional thermal leakage injection may be employed for the acceleration of electrons and ions at accretion shocks as well. Applying these analytic models to numerical shock zones identified in structure formation simulations, we estimate nonthermal radiation, such as synchrotron and inverse Compton (IC) emission due to CR electrons and π ^0 -decay γ -rays due to CR protons, around simulated clusters. Our models with injection parameter Q ≈ 3.5–3.8 predict synthetic synchrotron maps, which seem consistent with recent radio observations of the Coma Cluster. However, the detection of nonthermal IC X-rays and γ -rays from accretion shocks would be quite challenging. We suggest that the proposed analytic models may be adopted as generic recipes for CR production at cosmological shocks.