Ion Current Screening Modeling of the Ion–Weibel Instability

Ion–Weibel instability (IWI) is an important mechanism of generating a magnetic field in supernova remnants; it plays a key role in the generation of high-energy cosmic rays. Computational efficiency has been a bottleneck in numerical exploration of the large-scale evolution of IWI. Here I report a new hybrid particle-in-cell (PIC) method that can quickly simulate IWI. The method is based on a new model that describes the relation of the ion current and its magnetic field under the electron screening. The new method’s computational efficiency is nearly two orders of magnitude higher than that of the PIC method. This method is suitable for the full-scale simulation of the IWI in laser-plasma experiments and supernova remnants.

Sir Arnold Whittaker Wolfendale. 25 June 1927—21 December 2020

For over 50 years Arnold Wolfendale was an international leader in the fields of cosmic ray and gamma ray astronomy, making many seminal contributions. His extensive studies of the muon particle culminated in 1965 when, using an installation in the Kolar Gold Mine in India, he played a major role in the first detection of the neutrinos associated with muons produced in the atmosphere. His interests in the origin of high-energy cosmic rays were extensive and required the development of a better understanding of particle physics at energies beyond those accessible at accelerators. Recognizing that high-energy gamma rays can arise from cosmic ray interactions with the interstellar gas, he used early satellite data to argue for the galactic origin of intermediate-energy cosmic rays and for studies of the distribution of molecular hydrogen. His interests in astronomy, which he firmly held to be a branch of physics, drove him to develop a world-class activity in this area at Durham University. This achievement, in part, led to him being appointed Astronomer Royal in 1991. He used this position, and his roles as president of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Institute of Physics and the European Physical Society, to lobby tirelessly for more governmental support for science. He was an early advocate for improvements in the public understanding of science, leading by example. In his later years Arnold's interests extended to cosmology and horology, and he argued against a possible connection between cosmic rays and global warming. A brilliant communicator, Arnold gave a huge number of lectures each year to general audiences, almost to the end of his life.

Cosmology and Cosmic Rays Propagation in the Relativity with a Preferred Frame

In this chapter, cosmological models and the processes accompanying the propagation of the cosmic rays on cosmological scales are considered based on particle dynamics, electrodynamics and general relativity (GR) developed from the basic concepts of the ‘relativity with a preferred frame’. The ‘relativity with a preferred frame’, designed to reconcile the relativity principle with the existence of the cosmological preferred frame, incorporates the preferred frame at the fundamental level of special relativity (SR) while retaining the fundamental space-time symmetry which, in the standard SR, manifests itself as Lorentz invariance. The cosmological models based on the modified GR of the ‘relativity with a preferred frame’ allow us to explain the SNIa observational data without introducing the dark energy and also fit other observational data, in particular, the BAO data. Applying the theory to the photo pion-production and pair-production processes, accompanying the propagation of the Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) and gamma rays through the universal diffuse background radiation, shows that the modified particle dynamics, electrodynamics and GR lead to measurable signatures in the observed cosmic rays spectra which can provide an interpretation of some puzzling features found in the observational data. Other possible observational consequences of the theory, such as the birefringence of light propagating in vacuo and dispersion, are discussed.

Fast Particle Acceleration in Three-dimensional Relativistic Reconnection

Magnetic reconnection is invoked as one of the primary mechanisms to produce energetic particles. We employ large-scale 3D particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection in magnetically dominated (σ = 10) pair plasmas to study the energization physics of high-energy particles. We identify an acceleration mechanism that only operates in 3D. For weak guide fields, 3D plasmoids/flux ropes extend along the z-direction of the electric current for a length comparable to their cross-sectional radius. Unlike in 2D simulations, where particles are buried in plasmoids, in 3D we find that a fraction of particles with γ ≳ 3σ can escape from plasmoids by moving along z, and so they can experience the large-scale fields in the upstream region. These “free” particles preferentially move in z along Speiser-like orbits sampling both sides of the layer and are accelerated linearly in time—their Lorentz factor scales as γ ∝ t, in contrast to γ ∝ t in 2D. The energy gain rate approaches ∼eE rec c, where E rec ≃ 0.1B 0 is the reconnection electric field and B 0 the upstream magnetic field. The spectrum of free particles is hard, dN free / d γ ∝ γ − 1.5 , contains ∼20% of the dissipated magnetic energy independently of domain size, and extends up to a cutoff energy scaling linearly with box size. Our results demonstrate that relativistic reconnection in GRB and AGN jets may be a promising mechanism for generating ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.

Quantum Gravity Phenomenology Induced in the Propagation of UHECR, a Kinematical Solution in Finsler and Generalized Finsler Spacetime

It is well-known that the universe is opaque to the propagation of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) since these particles dissipate energy during their propagation interacting with the background fields present in the universe, mainly with the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) in the so-called GZK cut-off phenomenon. Some experimental evidence seems to hint at the possibility of a dilation of the GZK predicted opacity sphere. It is well-known that kinematical perturbations caused by supposed quantum gravity (QG) effects can modify the foreseen GZK opacity horizon. The introduction of Lorentz Invariance Violation can indeed reduce, and in some cases making negligible, the CMB-UHECRs interaction probability. In this work, we explore the effects induced by modified kinematics in the UHECR lightest component phenomenology from the QG perspective. We explore the possibility of a geometrical description of the massive fermions interaction with the supposed quantum structure of spacetime in order to introduce a Lorentz covariance modification. The kinematics are amended, modifying the dispersion relations of free particles in the context of a covariance-preserving framework. This spacetime description requires a more general geometry than the usual Riemannian one, indicating, for instance, the Finsler construction and the related generalized Finsler spacetime as ideal candidates. Finally we investigate the correlation between the magnitude of Lorentz covariance modification and the attenuation length of the photopion production process related to the GZK cut-off, demonstrating that the predicted opacity horizon can be dilated even in the context of a theory that does not require any privileged reference frame.

Cosmic-Ray Transport in Simulations of Star-forming Galactic Disks

Cosmic-ray transport on galactic scales depends on the detailed properties of the magnetized, multiphase interstellar medium (ISM). In this work, we postprocess a high-resolution TIGRESS magnetohydrodynamic simulation modeling a local galactic disk patch with a two-moment fluid algorithm for cosmic-ray transport. We consider a variety of prescriptions for the cosmic rays, from a simple, purely diffusive formalism with constant scattering coefficient, to a physically motivated model in which the scattering coefficient is set by the critical balance between streaming-driven Alfvén wave excitation and damping mediated by local gas properties. We separately focus on cosmic rays with kinetic energies of ∼1 GeV (high-energy) and ∼30 MeV (low energy), respectively important for ISM dynamics and chemistry. We find that simultaneously accounting for advection, streaming, and diffusion of cosmic rays is crucial for properly modeling their transport. Advection dominates in the high-velocity, low-density hot phase, while diffusion and streaming are more important in higher-density, cooler phases. Our physically motivated model shows that there is no single diffusivity for cosmic-ray transport: the scattering coefficient varies by four or more orders of magnitude, maximal at density n H ∼ 0.01 cm−3. The ion-neutral damping of Alfvén waves results in strong diffusion and nearly uniform cosmic-ray pressure within most of the mass of the ISM. However, cosmic rays are trapped near the disk midplane by the higher scattering rate in the surrounding lower-density, higher-ionization gas. The transport of high-energy cosmic rays differs from that of low-energy cosmic rays, with less effective diffusion and greater energy losses for the latter.

Extensive Air Shower Reconstruction using the timing information from the RF-system of the Astroneu array

The Astroneu cosmic ray telescope is a distributed hybrid array consisting of both scintillator counters and RF antenna detectors used for the detection of extensive air showers (EAS). The array is deployed at the Hellenic Open University campus, on the outskirts of the urban area of Patras in Greece. In the present development phase, the Astroneu telescope includes two stations consisting of 3 scintillation detectors modules (SDM) and one RF antenna while a third station includes 3 particle detectors and 4 RF antennas (3SDM-4RF). In each station, the RF-detectors are operating receiving a common trigger upon a 3-fold coincidence between the particle detectors of the station. In this study we present recent results from the 3SDM-4RF autonomous station related to the estimation of the direction of the incoming cosmic air shower using only the timing information from the 4 RF detectors. The directions of the reconstructed showers using the RF timing are in agreement with the corresponding results using the SDMs timing as well as with the simulation predictions. This verifies that the RF signal emitted from EAS originating form Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR), can be detected even in areas with strong electromagnetic background.

Ultra-High-energy Cosmic Rays from beyond the Greisen–Zatsepin–Kuz’min Horizon

Ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs) of energies ∼(1018–1020) eV, accelerated in violent astrophysical environments, interact with cosmic background radiation fields via photo-hadronic processes, leading to strong attenuation. Typically, the Universe would become “opaque” to UHE CRs after several tens of megaparsecs, setting the boundary of the Greisen–Zatsepin–Kuz’min (GZK) horizon. In this work, we investigate the contribution of sources beyond the conventional GZK horizon to the UHE CR flux observed on Earth, when photospallation of the heavy nuclear CRs is taken into account. We demonstrate that this contribution is substantial, despite the strong attenuation of UHE CRs. A significant consequence is the emergence of an isotropic background component in the observed flux of UHE CRs, coexisting with the anisotropic foreground component that is associated with nearby sources. Multi-particle CR horizons, which evolve over redshift, are determined by the CR nuclear composition. Thus, they are dependent on the source populations and source evolutionary histories.