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Dissipation of Magnetohydrodynamic Waves on Energetic Particles: Impact on Interstellar Turbulence and Cosmic Ray Transport

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/876043· OSTI ID:876043
The physical processes involved in diffusion of Galactic cosmic rays in the interstellar medium are addressed. We study the possibility that the nonlinear MHD cascade sets the power-law spectrum of turbulence which scatters charged energetic particles. We find that the dissipation of waves due to the resonant interaction with cosmic ray particles may terminate the Kraichnan-type cascade below wavelengths 10{sup 13} cm. The effect of this wave dissipation has been incorporated in the GALPROP numerical propagation code in order to asses the impact on measurable astrophysical data. The energy-dependence of the cosmic-ray diffusion coefficient found in the resulting self-consistent model may explain the peaks in the secondary to primary nuclei ratios observed at about 1 GeV/nucleon.
Research Organization:
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515;
OSTI ID:
876043
Report Number(s):
SLAC-PUB-11628; astro-ph/0510335
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English