Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Plasma Turbulence
Abstract
Due to its ubiquitous presence, turbulence is often invoked to explain the origin of nonthermal particles in astrophysical sources of high-energy emission. With particle-in-cell simulations, we study decaying turbulence in magnetically dominated (or, equivalently, “relativistic”) pair plasmas. We find that the generation of a power-law particle energy spectrum is a generic by-product of relativistic turbulence. The power-law slope is harder for higher magnetizations and stronger turbulence levels. In large systems, the slope attains an asymptotic, system-size-independent value, while the high-energy spectral cutoff increases linearly with system size; both the slope and the cutoff do not depend on the dimensionality of our domain. By following a large sample of particles, we show that particle injection happens at reconnecting current sheets; the injected particles are then further accelerated by stochastic interactions with turbulent fluctuations. Our results have important implications for the origin of nonthermal particles in high-energy astrophysical sources.
- Authors:
-
- Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States). Columbia Astrophysics Lab.
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1544144
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1488637
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0016542
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 121; Journal Issue: 25; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Citation Formats
Comisso, Luca, and Sironi, Lorenzo. Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Plasma Turbulence. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.255101.
Comisso, Luca, & Sironi, Lorenzo. Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Plasma Turbulence. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.255101
Comisso, Luca, and Sironi, Lorenzo. Thu .
"Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Plasma Turbulence". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.255101. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1544144.
@article{osti_1544144,
title = {Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Plasma Turbulence},
author = {Comisso, Luca and Sironi, Lorenzo},
abstractNote = {Due to its ubiquitous presence, turbulence is often invoked to explain the origin of nonthermal particles in astrophysical sources of high-energy emission. With particle-in-cell simulations, we study decaying turbulence in magnetically dominated (or, equivalently, “relativistic”) pair plasmas. We find that the generation of a power-law particle energy spectrum is a generic by-product of relativistic turbulence. The power-law slope is harder for higher magnetizations and stronger turbulence levels. In large systems, the slope attains an asymptotic, system-size-independent value, while the high-energy spectral cutoff increases linearly with system size; both the slope and the cutoff do not depend on the dimensionality of our domain. By following a large sample of particles, we show that particle injection happens at reconnecting current sheets; the injected particles are then further accelerated by stochastic interactions with turbulent fluctuations. Our results have important implications for the origin of nonthermal particles in high-energy astrophysical sources.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.255101},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
number = 25,
volume = 121,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {12}
}
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