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Register a new userConnecting Synchrotron, Cosmic Rays, and Magnetic Fields in the Plane of the Galaxy
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We extend previous work modeling the Galactic magnetic field in the plane using synchrotron emission in total and polarised intensity. In this work, we include a more realistic treatment of the cosmic-ray electrons using the GALPROP propagation code optimized to match the existing high-energy data. This addition reduces the degeneracies in our previous analysis and when combined with an additional observed synchrotron frequency allows us to study the low-energy end of the cosmic-ray electron spectrum in a way that has not previously been done. For a pure diffusion propagation, we find a low-energy injection spectrum slightly harder than generally assumed; for J(E) propto E^{alpha}, we find {alpha} = -1.34 pm 0.12, implying a very sharp break with the spectrum above a few GeV. This then predicts a synchrotron brightness temperature spectral index, {beta}, on the Galactic plane that is -2.8 < {beta} < -2.74 below a few GHz and -2.98 < {beta} < -2.91 up to 23 GHz. We find that models including cosmic-ray re-acceleration processes appear to be incompatible with the synchrotron data.
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Synchrotron radiation from cosmic rays is a key observational probe of the galactic magnetic field. Interpreting synchrotron emission data requires knowledge of the cosmic ray number density, which is often assumed to be in energy equipartition (or otherwise tightly correlated) with the magnetic field energy. However, there is no compelling observational or theoretical reason to expect such tight correlation to hold across all scales. We use test particle simulations, tracing the propagation of charged particles (protons) through a random magnetic field, to study the cosmic ray distribution at scales comparable to the correlation scale of the turbulent flow in the interstellar medium ($simeq 100,{rm pc}$ in spiral galaxies). In these simulations, we find that there is no spatial correlation between the cosmic ray number density and the magnetic field energy density. In fact, their distributions are approximately statistically independent. We find that low-energy cosmic rays can become trapped between magnetic mirrors, whose location depends more on the structure of the field lines than on the field strength.
We present a suite of high-resolution cosmological simulations, using the FIRE-2 feedback physics together with explicit treatment of magnetic fields, anisotropic conduction and viscosity, and cosmic rays (CRs) injected by supernovae (including anisotropic diffusion, streaming, adiabatic, hadronic and Coulomb losses). We survey systems from ultra-faint dwarf ($M_{ast}sim 10^{4},M_{odot}$, $M_{rm halo}sim 10^{9},M_{odot}$) through Milky Way masses, systematically vary CR parameters (e.g. the diffusion coefficient $kappa$ and streaming velocity), and study an ensemble of galaxy properties (masses, star formation histories, mass profiles, phase structure, morphologies). We confirm previous conclusions that magnetic fields, conduction, and viscosity on resolved ($gtrsim 1,$pc) scales have small effects on bulk galaxy properties. CRs have relatively weak effects on all galaxy properties studied in dwarfs ($M_{ast} ll 10^{10},M_{odot}$, $M_{rm halo} lesssim 10^{11},M_{odot}$), or at high redshifts ($zgtrsim 1-2$), for any physically-reasonable parameters. However at higher masses ($M_{rm halo} gtrsim 10^{11},M_{odot}$) and $zlesssim 1-2$, CRs can suppress star formation by factors $sim 2-4$, given relatively high effective diffusion coefficients $kappa gtrsim 3times10^{29},{rm cm^{2},s^{-1}}$. At lower $kappa$, CRs take too long to escape dense star-forming gas and lose energy to hadronic collisions, producing negligible effects on galaxies and violating empirical constraints from $gamma$-ray emission. But around $kappasim 3times10^{29},{rm cm^{2},s^{-1}}$, CRs escape the galaxy and build up a CR-pressure-dominated halo which supports dense, cool ($Tll 10^{6}$ K) gas that would otherwise rain onto the galaxy. CR heating (from collisional and streaming losses) is never dominant.
Interpretations of synchrotron observations often assume a tight correlation between magnetic and cosmic ray energy densities. We examine this assumption using both test-particle simulations of cosmic rays and MHD simulations which include cosmic rays as a diffusive fluid. We find no spatial correlation between the cosmic rays and magnetic field energy densities at turbulent scales. Moreover, the cosmic ray number density and magnetic field energy density are statistically independent. Nevertheless, the cosmic ray spatial distribution is highly inhomogeneous, especially at low energies because the particles are trapped between random magnetic mirrors. These results can significantly change the interpretation of synchrotron observations and thus our understanding of the strength and structure of magnetic fields in the Milky Way and nearby spiral galaxies.
The propagation of cosmic rays in turbulent magnetic fields is a diffusive process driven by the scattering of the charged particles by random magnetic fluctuations. Such fields are usually highly intermittent, consisting of intense magnetic filaments and ribbons surrounded by weaker, unstructured fluctuations. Studies of cosmic ray propagation have largely overlooked intermittency, instead relying on Gaussian random magnetic fields. Using test particle simulations, we investigate cosmic ray diffusivity in intermittent, dynamo-generated magnetic fields. The results are compared with those obtained from non-intermittent magnetic fields having identical power spectra. The presence of magnetic intermittency significantly enhances cosmic ray diffusion over a wide range of particle energies. We demonstrate that the results can be interpreted in terms of a correlated random walk.
We briefly review sources of cosmic rays, their composition and spectra as well as their propagation in the galactic and extragalactic magnetic fields, both regular and fluctuating. A special attention is paid to the recent results of the X-ray and gamma-ray observations that shed light on the origin of the galactic cosmic rays and the challenging results of Pierre Auger Observatory on the ultra high energy cosmic rays. The perspectives of both high energy astrophysics and cosmic-ray astronomy to identify the sources of ultra high energy cosmic rays, the mechanisms of particle acceleration, to measure the intergalactic radiation fields and to reveal the structure of magnetic fields of very different scales are outlined.
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