Basic Bell-MHD turbulence
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)
Nonresonant current instability was identified by Bell as an important mechanism for magnetic field amplification in supernova remnants. In this paper we focus on studying the nonlinear stage of this instability using the incompressible MHD formulation. We demonstrate that the evolution of magnetic turbulence driven by the Bell instability resembles turbulence driven on large scales. More importantly, we demonstrate that the energy-containing scale for magnetic fields is proportional to the square root of the magnetic energy density. Given the observational constraints of the possible field amplification, this new relation allows us to directly estimate the maximum energy of particles scattered by such fields, and this estimate is normally below the average particle energy. This implies that, without taking into account the feedback to cosmic rays (CRs), the typical scales of Bell fields, in either the linear or nonlinear regime, will be too small to affect high-energy particle acceleration. We mention several scenarios of back reaction to CRs that could be important.
- OSTI ID:
- 22356626
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 788, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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