131 research outputs found
Strong Imbalanced Turbulence
We consider stationary, forced, imbalanced, or cross-helical MHD Alfvenic
turbulence where the waves traveling in one direction have higher amplitudes
than the opposite waves. This paper is dedicated to so-called strong
turbulence, which cannot be treated perturbatively. Our main result is that the
anisotropy of the weak waves is stronger than the anisotropy of a strong waves.
We propose that critical balance, which was originally conceived as a causality
argument, has to be amended by what we call a propagation argument. This
revised formulation of critical balance is able to handle the imbalanced case
and reduces to old formulation in the balanced case. We also provide
phenomenological model of energy cascading and discuss possibility of
self-similar solutions in a realistic setup of driven turbulence.Comment: this is shorter, 5 page version of what is to appear in ApJ 682, Aug.
1, 200
Cosmic Ray streaming from SNRs and gamma ray emission from nearby molecular clouds
High-energy gamma ray emission has been detected recently from supernovae
remnants (SNRs) and their surroundings. The existence of molecular clouds near
some of the SNRs suggests that the gamma rays originate predominantly from p-p
interactions with cosmic rays accelerated at a closeby SNR shock wave. Here we
investigate the acceleration of cosmic rays and the gamma ray production in the
cloud self-consistently by taking into account the interactions of the
streaming instability and the background turbulence both at the shock front and
in the ensuing propagation to the clouds. We focus on the later evolution of
SNRs, when the conventional treatment of the streaming instability is valid but
the magnetic field is enhanced due to either Bell's current instability and/or
due to the dynamo generation of magnetic field in the precursor region. We
calculate the time dependence of the maximum energy of the accelerated
particles. This result is then used to determine the diffusive flux of the
runaway particles escaping the shock region, from which we obtain the gamma
spectrum consistent with observations. Finally, we check the self-consistency
of our results by comparing the required level of diffusion with the level of
the streaming instability attainable in the presence of turbulence damping. The
energy range of cosmic rays subject to the streaming instability is able to
produce the observed energy spectrum of gamma rays.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, ApJ in pres
Probing Nearby CR Accelerators and ISM Turbulence with Milagro Hot Spots
Both the acceleration of cosmic rays (CR) in supernova remnant shocks and
their subsequent propagation through the random magnetic field of the Galaxy
deem to result in an almost isotropic CR spectrum. Yet the MILAGRO TeV
observatory discovered a sharp ( arrival anisotropy of CR
nuclei. We suggest a mechanism for producing a weak and narrow CR beam which
operates en route to the observer. The key assumption is that CRs are scattered
by a strongly anisotropic Alfven wave spectrum formed by the turbulent cascade
across the local field direction. The strongest pitch-angle scattering occurs
for particles moving almost precisely along the field line. Partly because this
direction is also the direction of minimum of the large scale CR angular
distribution, the enhanced scattering results in a weak but narrow particle
excess. The width, the fractional excess and the maximum momentum of the beam
are calculated from a systematic transport theory depending on a single scale
which can be associated with the longest Alfven wave, efficiently
scattering the beam. The best match to all the three characteristics of the
beam is achieved at pc. The distance to a possible source of the beam
is estimated to be within a few 100pc. Possible approaches to determination of
the scale from the characteristics of the source are discussed. Alternative
scenarios of drawing the beam from the galactic CR background are considered.
The beam related large scale anisotropic CR component is found to be energy
independent which is also consistent with the observations.Comment: 2 figures, ApJ accepted version2 minor changes and correction
Relativistic parsec-scale jets: II. Synchrotron emission
We calculate the optically thin synchrotron emission of fast electrons and
positrons in a spiral stationary magnetic field and a radial electric field of
a rotating relativistic strongly magnetized force-free jet consisting of
electron-positron pair plasma. The magnetic field has a helical structure with
a uniform axial component and a toroidal component that is maximal inside the
jet and decreasing to zero towards the boundary of the jet. Doppler boosting
and swing of the polarization angle of synchrotron emission due to the
relativistic motion of the emitting volume are calculated. The distribution of
the plasma velocity in the jet is consistent with the electromagnetic field
structure. Two spatial distributions of fast particles are considered: uniform,
and concentrated in the vicinity of the Alfven resonance surface. The latter
distribution corresponds to the regular acceleration by an electromagnetic wave
in the vicinity of its Alfven resonance surface inside the jet. The
polarization properties of the radiation have been obtained and compared with
the existing VLBI polarization measurements of parsec-scale jets in BL Lac
sources and quasars. Our results give a natural explanation of the observed
bimodality in the alignment between the electric field vector of the polarized
radiation and the projection of the jet axis on the plane of the sky. We
interpret the motion of bright knots as a phase velocity of standing spiral
eigenmodes of electromagnetic perturbations in a cylindrical jet. The degree of
polarization and the velocity of the observed proper motion of bright knots
depend upon the angular rotational velocity of the jet. The observed
polarizations and velocities of knots indicate that the magnetic field lines
are bent in the direction opposite to the direction of the jet rotation.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, Astron. Astroph. in pres
Relativistic parsec-scale jets: I. Particle acceleration
We develop a theory of particle acceleration inside relativistic rotating
electron-positron force-free jets with spiral magnetic fields. We considered
perturbation of the stationary magnetic field structure and found that
acceleration takes place in the regions where the Alfven resonant condition
with the eigenmodes in the jet is fulfilled, i.e. where the local Alfven speed
is equal to the phase speed of an eigenmode. The acceleration mechanism is
regular acceleration by the electric field of the electromagnetic wave, which
is the eigenmode of the force-free cylindrical jet: particles drift out of the
region of the large wave amplitude near the Alfven resonant surface and gain
energy. Acceleration in the strong electric field near the Alfven resonance and
synchrotron losses combine to form a power-law energy spectrum of
ultra-relativistic electrons and positrons with index between 2 and 3 depending
upon the initial energy of the injected particles. The power law distribution
ranges from 10 MeV to 1000 MeV.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; Astron. Astrophys. in pres
Power and spectral index anisotropy of the entire inertial range of turbulence in the fast solar wind
We measure the power and spectral index anisotropy of high speed solar wind
turbulence from scales larger than the outer scale down to the ion gyroscale,
thus covering the entire inertial range. We show that the power and spectral
indices at the outer scale of turbulence are approximately isotropic. The
turbulent cascade causes the power anisotropy at smaller scales manifested by
anisotropic scalings of the spectrum: close to k^{-5/3} across and k^{-2} along
the local magnetic field, consistent with a critically balanced Alfvenic
turbulence. By using data at different radial distances from the Sun, we show
that the width of the inertial range does not change with heliocentric distance
and explain this by calculating the radial dependence of the ratio of the outer
scale to the ion gyroscale. At the smallest scales of the inertial range, close
to the ion gyroscale, we find an enhancement of power parallel to the magnetic
field direction coincident with a decrease in the perpendicular power. This is
most likely related to energy injection by ion kinetic modes such as the
firehose instability and also marks the beginning of the dissipation range of
solar wind turbulence.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, submitted to MNRAS letter
Cosmic-ray pitch-angle scattering in imbalanced mhd turbulence simulations
Pitch-angle scattering rates for cosmic-ray particles in magnetohydrodynamic
(MHD) simulations with imbalanced turbulence are calculated for fully evolving
electromagnetic turbulence. We compare with theoretical predictions derived
from the quasilinear theory of cosmic-ray diffusion for an idealized slab
spectrum and demonstrate how cross helicity affects the shape of the
pitch-angle diffusion coefficient. Additional simulations in evolving magnetic
fields or static field configurations provide evidence that the scattering
anisotropy in imbalanced turbulence is not primarily due to coherence with
propagating Alfven waves, but an effect of the spatial structure of electric
fields in cross-helical MHD turbulence.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures. Accepted by Ap
Theory and Applications of Non-Relativistic and Relativistic Turbulent Reconnection
Realistic astrophysical environments are turbulent due to the extremely high
Reynolds numbers. Therefore, the theories of reconnection intended for
describing astrophysical reconnection should not ignore the effects of
turbulence on magnetic reconnection. Turbulence is known to change the nature
of many physical processes dramatically and in this review we claim that
magnetic reconnection is not an exception. We stress that not only
astrophysical turbulence is ubiquitous, but also magnetic reconnection itself
induces turbulence. Thus turbulence must be accounted for in any realistic
astrophysical reconnection setup. We argue that due to the similarities of MHD
turbulence in relativistic and non-relativistic cases the theory of magnetic
reconnection developed for the non-relativistic case can be extended to the
relativistic case and we provide numerical simulations that support this
conjecture. We also provide quantitative comparisons of the theoretical
predictions and results of numerical experiments, including the situations when
turbulent reconnection is self-driven, i.e. the turbulence in the system is
generated by the reconnection process itself. We show how turbulent
reconnection entails the violation of magnetic flux freezing, the conclusion
that has really far reaching consequences for many realistically turbulent
astrophysical environments. In addition, we consider observational testing of
turbulent reconnection as well as numerous implications of the theory. The
former includes the Sun and solar wind reconnection, while the latter include
the process of reconnection diffusion induced by turbulent reconnection, the
acceleration of energetic particles, bursts of turbulent reconnection related
to black hole sources as well as gamma ray bursts. Finally, we explain why
turbulent reconnection cannot be explained by turbulent resistivity or derived
through the mean field approach.Comment: 66 pages, 24 figures, a chapter of the book "Magnetic Reconnection -
Concepts and Applications", editors W. Gonzalez, E. N. Parke
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