ANALYTIC SOLUTION FOR SELF-REGULATED COLLECTIVE ESCAPE OF COSMIC RAYS FROM THEIR ACCELERATION SITES
- CASS and Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 (United States)
- University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-3280 (United States)
- Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 31 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2 (Ireland)
Supernova remnants (SNRs), as the major contributors to the galactic cosmic rays (CRs), are believed to maintain an average CR spectrum by diffusive shock acceleration regardless of the way they release CRs into the interstellar medium (ISM). However, the interaction of the CRs with nearby gas clouds crucially depends on the release mechanism. We call into question two aspects of a popular paradigm of the CR injection into the ISM, according to which they passively and isotropically diffuse in the prescribed magnetic fluctuations as test particles. First, we treat the escaping CR and the Alfven waves excited by them on an equal footing. Second, we adopt field-aligned CR escape outside the source, where the waves become weak. An exact analytic self-similar solution for a CR ''cloud'' released by a dimmed accelerator strongly deviates from the test-particle result. The normalized CR partial pressure may be approximated as P(p,z,t)=2[|z|{sup 5/3}+z{sub dif}{sup 5/3}(p,t)]{sup -3/5} exp[-z{sup 2}/4D{sub ISM}(p)t], where p is the momentum of CR particle, and z is directed along the field. The core of the cloud expands as z{sub dif}{proportional_to}{radical}(D{sub NL}(p)t) and decays in time as p{proportional_to}2z{sup -1}{sub dif}(t). The diffusion coefficient D{sub NL} is strongly suppressed compared to its background ISM value D{sub ISM}: D{sub NL} {approx} D{sub ISM}exp (- {Pi}) << D{sub ISM} for sufficiently high field-line-integrated CR partial pressure, {Pi}. When {Pi} >> 1, the CRs drive Alfven waves efficiently enough to build a transport barrier (p Almost-Equal-To 2/ Divides z Divides -{sup p}edestal{sup )} that strongly reduces the leakage. The solution has a spectral break at p = p{sub br}, where p{sub br} satisfies the equation D{sub NL}(p{sub br}) {approx_equal} z {sup 2}/t.
- OSTI ID:
- 22126802
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 768, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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