Magnetic and density spikes in cosmic ray shock precursors

In shock precursors populated by accelerated cosmic rays (CR), the CR return current instability is believed to significantly enhance the pre-shock perturbations of magnetic field. We have obtained fully-nonlinear exact ideal MHD solutions supported by the CR return current. The solutions occur as localized spikes of circularly polarized Alfven envelopes (solitons, or breathers). As the conventional (undriven) solitons, the obtained magnetic spikes propagate at a speed $C$ proportional to their amplitude, $C=C_{A}B_{{\rm max}}/\sqrt{2}B_{0}$. The sufficiently strong solitons run thus ahead of the main shock and stand in the precursor, being supported by the return current. This property of the nonlinear solutions is strikingly different from the linear theory that predicts non-propagating (that is, convected downstream) circularly polarized waves. The nonlinear solutions may come either in isolated pulses (solitons) or in soliton-trains (cnoidal waves). The morphological similarity of such quasi-periodic soliton chains with recently observed X-ray stripes in Tycho supernova remnant (SNR) is briefly discussed. The magnetic field amplification determined by the suggested saturation process is obtained as a function of decreasing SNR blast wave velocity during its evolution from the ejecta-dominated to the Sedov-Taylor stage.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure

Spatial chaos in weakly dispersive and viscous media: a nonperturbative theory of the driven KdV-Burgers equation

The asymptotic travelling wave solution of the KdV-Burgers equation driven by the long scale periodic driver is constructed. The solution represents a shock-train in which the quasi-periodic sequence of dispersive shocks or soliton chains is interspersed by smoothly varying regions. It is shown that the periodic solution which has the spatial driver period undergoes period doublings as the governing parameter changes. Two types of chaotic behavior are considered. The first type is a weak chaos, where only a small chaotic deviation from the periodic solution occurs. The second type corresponds to the developed chaos where the solution ``ignores'' the driver period and represents a random sequence of uncorrelated shocks. In the case of weak chaos the shock coordinate being repeatedly mapped over the driver period moves on a chaotic attractor, while in the case of developed chaos it moves on a repellor. Both solutions depend on a parameter indicating the reference shock position in the shock-train. The structure of a one dimensional set to which this parameter belongs is investigated. This set contains measure one intervals around the fixed points in the case of periodic or weakly chaotic solutions and it becomes a fractal in the case of strong chaos. The capacity dimension of this set is calculated.Comment: 32 pages, 12 PostScript figures, useses elsart.sty and boxedeps.tex, fig.11 is not included and can be requested from <[email protected]

Assessment of evolutionary status of eclipsing binaries using light-curve parameters and spectral classification

We have developed a procedure for the classification of eclipsing binaries from their light-curve parameters and spectral type. The procedure was tested on more than 1000 systems with known classification, and its efficiency was estimated for every evolutionary status we use. The procedure was applied to about 4700 binaries with no classification, and the vast majority of them was classified successfully. Systems of relatively rare evolutionary classes were detected in that process, as well as systems with unusual and/or contradictory parameters. Also, for 50 previously unclassified cluster binaries evolutionary classes were identified. These stars can serve as tracers for age and distance estimation of their parent stellar systems. The procedure proved itself as fast, flexible and effective enough to be applied to large ground based and space born surveys, containing tens of thousands of eclipsing binaries.Comment: 12 pages, 6 tables, 2 figures, 3 appendixe

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 ($\sim10^{\circ})$ 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 $l$ 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 $l\sim1$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 $l$ 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

Spectral universality of strong shocks accelerating charged particles

As a rule, the shock compression controls the spectrum of diffusively accelerated particles. We argue that this is not so if the backreaction of these particles on the shock structure is significant. We present a self-similar solution in which the accelerated particles change the flow structure near the shock so strongly that the total shock compression may become arbitrarily large. Despite this, the energy spectrum behind the shock is close to E^{-3/2} independently of anything at all.Comment: Submitted to ApJL, 4 pages, 1 figure, uses revtex and boxedep