The nonlinear saturation of the non-resonant kinetically driven streaming instability

Abstract

A non-resonant instability for the amplification of the interstellar magnetic field in young Supernova Remnant (SNR) shocks was predicted by Bell (2004), and is thought to be relevant for the acceleration of cosmic ray (CR) particles. For this instability, the CRs streaming ahead of SNR shock fronts drive electromagnetic waves with wavelengths much shorter than the typical CR Larmor radius, by inducing a current parallel to the background magnetic field. We explore the nonlinear regime of the non-resonant mode using Particle-in-Cell (PIC) hybrid simulations, with kinetic ions and fluid electrons, and analyze the saturation mechanism for realistic CR and background plasma parameters. In the linear regime, the observed growth rates and wavelengths match the theoretical predictions; the nonlinear stage of the instability shows a strong reaction of both the background plasma and the CR particles, with the saturation level of the magnetic field varying with the CR parameters. The simulations with CR-to-background density ratios of n_CR/n_b=10^(-5) reveal the highest magnetic field saturation levels, with energy also being transferred to the background plasma and to the perpendicular velocity components of the CR particles. The results show that amplification factors >10 for the magnetic field can be achieved, and suggest that this instability is important for the generation of magnetic field turbulence, and for the acceleration of CR particles.

References in corpus (5)

• A kinetic approach to cosmic ray induced streaming instability at supernova shocks
• Confirmation of strong magnetic field amplification and nuclear cosmic ray acceleration in SN 1006
• Production of Magnetic Turbulence by Cosmic Rays Drifting Upstream of Supernova Remnant Shocks
• Kinetic simulations of turbulent magnetic-field growth by streaming cosmic rays
• Saturated magnetic field amplification at supernova shocks

Cited by in corpus (16)

• The microphysics of collisionless shock waves
• Simulations of Ion Acceleration at Non-relativistic Shocks. II. Magnetic Field Amplification
• Ion acceleration in non-relativistic astrophysical shocks
• Cosmic-ray current driven turbulence in shocks with efficient particle acceleration: the oblique, long-wavelength mode instability
• Kinetic Simulations of Cosmic-Ray-Modified Shocks I: Hydrodynamics
• Escape of cosmic-ray electrons from supernova remnants
• PIC Simulation Methods for Cosmic Radiation and Plasma Instabilities
• Stable Heating of Cluster Cooling Flows by Cosmic-Ray Streaming
• dHybridR: a Hybrid--Particle-in-Cell Code Including Relativistic Ion Dynamics
• Non-thermal Emissions from Cool Cores Heated by Cosmic-Rays in Galaxy Clusters
• Electron Heating, Magnetic Field Amplification, and Cosmic Ray Precursor Length at Supernova Remnant Shocks
• Lepton-driven Non-resonant Streaming Instability
• Spatio-temporal evolution of the nonresonant instability in shock precursors of young supernova remnants
• Could Cosmic Rays Affect Instabilities in the Transition Layer of Nonrelativistic Collisionless Shocks?
• Cosmic-ray current-driven instabilities -- revisiting environmental conditions
• Time-dependent treatment of cosmic-ray spectral steepening due to turbulence driving