Explaining TeV Cosmic-Ray Anisotropies with Non-Diffusive Cosmic-Ray Propagation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Monte Carlo simulation to study how coherent magnetic fields in the interstellar medium influence cosmic-ray propagation, potentially explaining observed anisotropies in TeV cosmic rays.

Contribution

It presents a new Monte Carlo code that models cosmic-ray propagation through realistic magnetic field structures, highlighting the importance of coherent magnetic regions.

Findings

Coherent magnetic structures significantly increase cosmic-ray flux at anisotropic sky locations.

The model suggests these structures could explain observed TeV cosmic-ray anisotropies.

Preliminary results show flux enhancements over two orders of magnitude.

Abstract

Constraining the behavior of cosmic ray data observed at Earth requires a precise understanding of how the cosmic rays propagate in the interstellar medium. The interstellar medium is not homogeneous; although turbulent magnetic fields dominate over large scales, small coherent regions of magnetic field exist on scales relevant to particle propagation in the nearby Galaxy. Guided propagation through a coherent field is significantly different from random particle diffusion and could be the explanation of spatial anisotropies in the observed cosmic rays. We present a Monte Carlo code to propagate cosmic particle through realistic magnetic field structures. We discuss the details of the model as well as some preliminary studies which indicate that coherent magnetic structures are important effects in local cosmic-ray propagation, increasing the flux of cosmic rays by over two orders of magnitude at anisotropic locations on the sky. The features induced by coherent magnetic structure could be the cause of the observed TeV cosmic-ray anisotropy.