 Synchrotron cooling

At fixed magnetic field, ultrarelativistic electrons lose energy through synchrotron radiation at a rate proportional to $E^2$. For steady injection $Q(E)\propto E^{-s}$, negligible escape and $s>1$, integrating the energy-space continuity equation gives $N(E)=|\dot{E}{|}^{-1}{\int }_E^{\infty }Q(E^{\prime })d{E}^{\prime }\propto E^{-(s+1)}$. Above the cooling break, the optically thin radiation spectral index therefore steepens from $(s-1)/2$ to $s/2$.