Magnetic field amplification is needed to accelerate cosmic cays to PeV
energies in supernova remants. Escaping cosmic rays trigger a return current in
the plasma that drives a non-resonant hybrid instability. We run simulations in
which we represent the escaping cosmic rays with the plasma return current,
keeping the maximum cosmic ray energy fixed, and evaluate its effects on the
upstream medium. In addition to magnetic field amplification, density
perturbations arise that, when passing through the shock, further increase
amplification levels downstream. As the growth rate of the instability is most
rapid for the smaller scales, the resolution is a limiting factor in the
amplification that can be reached with these simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the conference
"370 years of Astronomy in Utrecht", eds. G. Pugliese, A. de Koter and M.
Wijbur