Superdiffusion of Cosmic Rays in Compressible Magnetized Turbulence

TL;DR

This study investigates how cosmic rays diffuse in different types of magnetized turbulence, revealing superdiffusive behavior and the influence of turbulence parameters on cosmic ray propagation.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of cosmic ray superdiffusion in compressible MHD turbulence, highlighting the roles of Alfven and sonic Mach numbers and mode energy fractions.

Findings

Perpendicular displacement follows a 3/2 power law in time for superdiffusion.

Parallel mean free path decreases with increasing Alfven Mach number as M_A^{-2}.

Alfvenic modes dominate the perpendicular superdiffusion process.

Abstract

Owing to the complexity of turbulent magnetic fields, modeling the diffusion of cosmic rays is challenging. Based on the current understanding of anisotropic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, we use test particles to examine the cosmic rays' superdiffusion in the direction perpendicular to the mean magnetic field. By changing Alfven Mach number $M_A$ and sonic Mach number $M_S$ of compressible MHD simulations, our study covers a wide range of astrophysical conditions including subsonic warm gas phase and supersonic cold molecular gas. We show that freely streaming cosmic rays' perpendicular displacement increases as 3/2 to the power of the time traveled along local magnetic field lines. This power-law index changes to 3/4 if the parallel propagation is diffusive. We find that the cosmic rays' parallel mean free path decreases in a power-law relation of $M_A^{-2}$ in supersonic turbulence. We investigate the energy fraction of slow, fast, and Alfvenic modes and confirm the dominance of Alfvenic modes in the perpendicular superdiffusion. In particular, the energy fraction of fast mode, which is the main agent for pitch-angle scattering, increases with $M_A$ but is insensitive to $M_S \ge 2$. Accordingly, our results suggest that the suppressed diffusion in supersonic molecular clouds arises primarily due to the variations of $M_A$ instead of $M_S$.