586 research outputs found
A cosmic ray current driven instability in partially ionised media
We investigate the growth of hydromagnetic waves driven by streaming cosmic
rays in the precursor environment of a supernova remnant shock. It is known
that transverse waves propagating parallel to the mean magnetic field are
unstable to anisotropies in the cosmic ray distribution, and may provide a
mechanism to substantially amplify the ambient magnetic field. We quantify the
extent to which temperature and ionisation fractions modify this picture. Using
a kinetic description of the plasma we derive the dispersion relation for a
collisionless thermal plasma with a streaming cosmic ray current. Fluid
equations are then used to discuss the effects of neutral-ion collisions. We
calculate the extent to which the environment into which the cosmic rays
propagate influences the growth of the magnetic field, and determines the range
of possible growth rates. If the cosmic ray acceleration is efficient, we find
that very large neutral fractions are required to stabilise the growth of the
non-resonant mode. For typical supernova parameters in our galaxy, thermal
effects do not significantly alter the growth rates. For weakly driven modes,
ion-neutral damping can dominate over the instability at more modest ionisation
fractions. In the case of a supernova shock interacting with a molecular
clouds, such as in RX J1713.7-3946, with high density and low ionisation, the
modes can be rapidly damped.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted to A&A. Corrections made. Applications
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Colliding Particles in Highly Turbulent Flows
We discuss relative velocities and the collision rate of small particles
suspended in a highly turbulent fluid. In the limit where the viscous damping
is very weak, we estimate the relative velocities using the Kolmogorov cascade
principle.Comment: 5 pages, no figures, v2 contains additional result
Direct observation of dynamic surface acoustic wave controlled carrier injection into single quantum posts using phase-resolved optical spectroscopy
A versatile stroboscopic technique based on active phase-locking of a surface
acoustic wave to picosecond laser pulses is used to monitor dynamic
acoustoelectric effects. Time-integrated multi-channel detection is applied to
probe the modulation of the emission of a quantum well for different
frequencies of the surface acoustic wave. For quantum posts we resolve
dynamically controlled generation of neutral and charged excitons and
preferential injection of holes into localized states within the nanostructure.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
The Origin of Galactic Cosmic Rays
Motivated by recent measurements of the major components of the cosmic
radiation around 10 TeV/nucleon and above, we discuss the phenomenology of a
model in which there are two distinct kinds of cosmic ray accelerators in the
galaxy. Comparison of the spectra of hydrogen and helium up to 100 TeV per
nucleon suggests that these two elements do not have the same spectrum of
magnetic rigidity over this entire region and that these two dominant elements
therefore receive contributions from different sources.Comment: To be published in Physical Review D, 13 pages, with 3 figures,
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Spectrum of cosmic rays, produced in supernova remnants
Nonlinear kinetic theory of cosmic ray (CR) acceleration in supernova
remnants is employed to calculate CR spectra. The magnetic field in SNRs is
assumed to be significantly amplified by the efficiently accelerating nuclear
CR component. It is shown that the calculated CR spectra agree in a
satisfactory way with the existing measurements up to the energy eV.
The power law spectrum of protons extends up to the energy eV
with a subsequent exponential cutoff. It gives a natural explanation for the
observed knee in the Galactic CR spectrum. The maximum energy of the
accelerated nuclei is proportional to their charge number . Therefore the
break in the Galactic CR spectrum is the result of the contribution of
progressively heavier species in the overall CR spectrum so that at
eV the CR spectrum is dominated by iron group nuclei. It is shown that this
component plus a suitably chosen extragalactic CR component can give a
consistent description for the entire Galactic CR spectrum.Comment: 4 pages with emulateapj, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journal Letter
Point-like gamma ray sources as signatures of distant accelerators of ultra high energy cosmic rays
We discuss the possibility of observing distant accelerators of ultra high
energy cosmic rays in synchrotron gamma rays. Protons propagating away from
their acceleration sites produce extremely energetic electrons during
photo-pion interactions with cosmic microwave background photons. If the
accelerator is embedded in a magnetized region, these electrons will emit high
energy synchrotron radiation. The resulting synchrotron source is expected to
be point-like and detectable in the GeV-TeV energy range if the magnetic field
is at the nanoGauss level.Comment: 4 pages 2 figures. To be published in PR
Modeling Bell's Non-resonant Cosmic Ray Instability
We have studied the non-resonant streaming instability of charged energetic
particles moving through a background plasma, discovered by Bell (2004). We
confirm his numerical results regarding a significant magnetic field
amplification in the system. A detailed physical picture of the instability
development and of the magnetic field evolution is given.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, accepted to Ap
Cosmic ray production in supernova remnants including reacceleration: the secondary to primary ratio
We study the production of cosmic rays (CRs) in supernova remnants (SNRs),
including the reacceleration of background galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) - thus
refining the early considerations by Blandford & Ostriker (1980) and Wandel et
al. (1987) - and the effects of the nuclear spallation inside the sources (the
SNRs). This combines for the first time nuclear spallation inside CR sources
and in the diffuse interstellar medium, as well as reacceleration, with the
injection and subsequent acceleration of suprathermal particles from the
postshock thermal pool. Selfconsistent CR spectra are calculated on the basis
of the nonlinear kinetic model. It is shown that GCR reacceleration and CR
spallation produce a measurable effect at high energies, especially in the
secondary to primary (s/p) ratio, making its energy-dependence substantially
flatter than predicted by the standard model. Quantitatively, the effect
depends strongly upon the density of the surrounding circumstellar matter. GCR
reacceleration dominates secondary CR production for a low circumstellar
density. It increases the expected s/p ratio substantially and flattens its
spectrum to an almost energy-independent form for energies larger than 100
GeV/n if the supernovae explode on average into a hot dilute medium with
hydrogen number density cm. The contribution of CR spallation
inside SNRs to the s/p ratio increases with increasing circumstellar density
and becomes dominant for N_H\gsim 1 cm, leading at high energies to a
flat s/p ratio which is only by a factor of three lower than in the case of the
hot medium. Measurements of the boron to carbon ratio at energies above 100
GeV/n could be used in comparison with the values predicted here as a
consistency test for the supernova origin of the GCRs.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Prospects of detecting gamma-ray emission from galaxy clusters: cosmic rays and dark matter annihilations
We study the possibility for detecting gamma-ray emission from galaxy
clusters. We consider 1) leptophilic models of dark matter (DM) annihilation
that include a Sommerfeld enhancement (SFE), 2) different representative
benchmark models of supersymmetric DM, and 3) cosmic ray (CR) induced pion
decay. Among all clusters/groups of a flux-limited X-ray sample, we predict
Virgo, Fornax and M49 to be the brightest DM sources and find a particularly
low CR-induced background for Fornax. For a minimum substructure mass given by
the DM free-streaming scale, cluster halos maximize the substructure boost for
which we find a factor above 1000. Since regions around the virial radius
dominate the annihilation flux of substructures, the resulting surface
brightness profiles are almost flat. This makes it very challenging to detect
this flux with imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Assuming cold dark
matter with a substructure mass distribution down to an Earth mass and using
extended Fermi upper limits, we rule out the leptophilic models in their
present form in 28 clusters, and limit the boost from SFE in M49 and Fornax to
be < 5. This corresponds to a limit on SFE in the Milky Way of < 3, which is
too small to account for the increasing positron fraction with energy as seen
by PAMELA and challenges the DM interpretation. Alternatively, if SFE is
realized in Nature, this would imply a limiting substructure mass of M_lim >
10^4 M_sol - a problem for structure formation. Using individual cluster
observations, it will be challenging for Fermi to constrain our selection of DM
benchmark models without SFE. The Fermi upper limits are, however, closing in
on our predictions for the CR flux using an analytic model based on
cosmological hydrodynamical cluster simulations. We limit the CR-to-thermal
pressure in nearby bright galaxy clusters of the Fermi sample to < 10% and in
Norma and Coma to < 3%.Comment: 43 pages, 23 figures, 10 tables. Accepted for publication in Phys.
Rev. D: streamlined paper, added a paragraph about detectability to
introduction, few references added, and few typos correcte
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