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Register a new userTrapping of cosmic rays in MHD turbulence
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Astrophysical plasmas are turbulent and magnetized. The interaction between cosmic rays (CRs) and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is a fundamental astrophysical process. Based on the current understanding of MHD turbulence, we revisit the trapping of CRs by magnetic mirrors in the context of MHD turbulence. In compressible MHD turbulence, isotropic fast modes dominate both trapping and gyroresonant scattering of CRs. The presence of trapping significantly suppresses the pitch-angle scattering and the spatial diffusion of CRs along the magnetic field. The resulting parallel diffusion coefficient has a weaker dependence on CR energy at higher energies. In incompressible MHD turbulence, the trapping by pseudo-Alfv{e}n modes dominates over the gyroresonant scattering by anisotropic Alfv{e}n and pseudo-Alfv{e}n modes at all pitch angles and prevents CRs from diffusion.
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As the fundamental physical process with many astrophysical implications, the diffusion of cosmic rays (CRs) is determined by their interaction with magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. We consider the magnetic mirroring effect arising from MHD turbulence on the diffusion of CRs. Due to the intrinsic superdiffusion of turbulent magnetic fields, CRs with large pitch angles that undergo mirror reflection, i.e., bouncing CRs, are not trapped between magnetic mirrors, but move diffusively along the magnetic field, leading to a new type of parallel diffusion. This diffusion is in general slower than the diffusion of non-bouncing CRs with small pitch angles that undergo gyroresonant scattering. The critical pitch angle at the balance between magnetic mirroring and pitch-angle scattering is important for determining the diffusion coefficients of both bouncing and non-bouncing CRs and their scalings with the CR energy. We find non-universal energy scalings of diffusion coefficients, depending on the properties of MHD turbulence.
Non-thermal acceleration of particles in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence plays a central role in a wide variety of astrophysical sites. This physics is addressed here in the context of a strong turbulence, composed of coherent structures rather than waves, beyond the realm of quasilinear theory. The present description tracks the momentum of the particle through a sequence of frames in which the electric field vanishes, in the spirit of the original Fermi scenario. It connects the sources of energy gain (or loss) to the gradients of the velocity of the magnetic field lines, in particular the acceleration and the shear of their velocity flow projected along the field line direction, as well as their compression in the transverse plane. Those velocity gradients are subject to strong intermittency: they are spatially localized and their strengths obey powerlaw distributions, as demonstrated through direct measurements in the incompressible MHD simulation of the Johns Hopkins University database. This intermittency impacts the acceleration process in a significant way, which opens up prospects for a rich phenomenology. In particular, the momentum distribution, which is here captured through an analytical random walk model, displays extended powerlaw tails with soft-to-hard evolution in time, in general agreement with recent kinetic numerical simulations. Extensions to this description and possible avenues of exploration are discussed.
Long-time high-resolution simulations of the dynamics of a coronal loop in cartesian geometry are carried out, within the framework of reduced magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD), to understand coronal heating driven by motion of field lines anchored in the photosphere. We unambiguously identify MHD anisotropic turbulence as the physical mechanism responsible for the transport of energy from the large scales, where energy is injected by photospheric motions, to the small scales, where it is dissipated. As the loop parameters vary different regimes of turbulence develop: strong turbulence is found for weak axial magnetic fields and long loops, leading to Kolmogorov-like spectra in the perpendicular direction, while weaker and weaker regimes (steeper spectral slopes of total energy) are found for strong axial magnetic fields and short loops. As a consequence we predict that the scaling of the heating rate with axial magnetic field intensity $B_0$, which depends on the spectral index of total energy for given loop parameters, must vary from $B_0^{3/2}$ for weak fields to $B_0^{2}$ for strong fields at a given aspect ratio. The predicted heating rate is within the lower range of observed active region and quiet Sun coronal energy losses.
Cosmic ray propagation is determined by the properties of interstellar turbulence. The multiphase nature of interstellar medium (ISM) and diversity of driving mechanisms give rise to spatial variation of turbulence properties. Meanwhile, precision astroparticle experiments pose challenges to the conventional picture of homogeneous and isotropic transport of cosmic rays (CRs). We are beginning a new chapter of CR propagation research when studies of particle transport and interstellar turbulence confront each other. Here we review our recent developement on understandings of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence and its connection to the fundamental processes governing cosmic ray propagation, different regimes of particle transport, that are augmented with observational discovery and analysis from multi-wavelength observations.
Observations of the FR I radio galaxy Centaurus A in radio, X-ray and gamma-ray bands provide evidence for lepton acceleration up to several TeV and clues about hadron acceleration to tens of EeV. Synthesising the available observational constraints on the physical conditions and particle content in the jets, inner lobes and giant lobes of Centaurus A, we aim to evaluate its feasibility as an ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray source. We apply several methods of determining jet power and affirm the consistency of various power estimates of ~ 1 x 10^43 erg s^-1. Employing scaling relations based on previous results for 3C 31, we estimate particle number densities in the jets, encompassing available radio through X-ray observations. Our model is compatible with the jets ingesting ~ 3 x 10^21 g s^-1 of matter via external entrainment from hot gas and ~ 7 x 10^22 g s^-1 via internal entrainment from jet-contained stars. This leads to an imbalance between the internal lobe pressure available from radiating particles and magnetic field, and our derived external pressure. Based on knowledge of the external environments of other FR I sources, we estimate the thermal pressure in the giant lobes as 1.5 x 10^-12 dyn cm^-2, from which we deduce a lower limit to the temperature of ~ 1.6 x 10^8 K. Using dynamical and buoyancy arguments, we infer ~ 440-645 Myr and ~ 560 Myr as the sound-crossing and buoyancy ages of the giant lobes respectively, inconsistent with their spectral ages. We re-investigate the feasibility of particle acceleration via stochastic processes in the lobes, placing new constraints on the energetics and on turbulent input to the lobes. The same very hot temperatures that allow self-consistency between the entrainment calculations and the missing pressure also allow stochastic UHECR acceleration models to work.
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