Origin and Impacts of the First Cosmic Rays

Abstract

Nonthermal phenomena are ubiquitous in the Universe, and cosmic rays (CRs) play various roles in different environments. When, where, and how CRs are first generated since the Big Bang? We argue that blast waves from the first cosmic explosions at z~20 lead to Weibel mediated nonrelativistic shocks and CRs can be generated by the diffusive shock acceleration mechanism. We show that protons are accelerated at least up to sub-GeV energies, and the fast velocity component of supernova ejecta is likely to allow CRs to achieve a few GeV in energy. We discuss other possible accelerators of the first CRs, including accretion shocks due to the cosmological structure formation. These CRs can play various roles in the early universe, such as the ionization and heating of gas, the generation of magnetic fields, and feedbacks on the galaxy formation.

7 pages, accepted for publication in PRD

References in corpus (15)

• Detection of the Characteristic Pion-Decay Signature in Supernova Remnants
• Pulsational Pair-Instability Supernovae
• Particle acceleration in relativistic collisionless shocks: Fermi process at last?
• Cosmic ray feedback in hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation
• Magnetic field evolution in relativistic unmagnetized collisionless shocks
• Saturation mechanism of the Weibel instability in weakly magnetized plasmas
• Mass Ejection in Failed Supernovae: Variation with Stellar Progenitor
• The dependence of cosmic ray driven galactic winds on halo mass
• Energetics of High-Energy Cosmic Radiations
• Particle Transport in intense small scale magnetic turbulence with a mean field
• Oblique Ion Two-Stream Instability in the Foot Region of a Collisionless Shock
• Disruption of current filaments and isotropization of magnetic field in counter-streaming plasmas
• Absence of Electron Surfing Acceleration in a Two-Dimensional Simulation
• Magnetic Field Saturation of the Ion Weibel Instability in Interpenetrating Relativistic Plasmas
• High Energy Neutrino Emission from the Earliest Gamma-Ray Bursts

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Probing Particle Acceleration through Broadband Early Afterglow Emission of MAGIC Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 190114C
• Signatures of Cosmic Ray Heating in 21-cm Observables
• Gravitational waves from mergers of Population III binary black holes: roles played by two evolution channels
• Magnetic field generation by an inhomogeneous return current
• The Biermann battery driven by a streaming plasma
• Self-discharge by streaming cosmic rays
• Resistive Heating Induced by Streaming Cosmic Rays Around a Galaxy in the Early Universe
• Biermann Battery Powered by Resistive Heating Induced by Cosmic Ray Streaming
• Collisionless shock in a relativistically hot unmagnetized electron-positron plasma
• Magnetic field generation by charge exchange in a supernova remnant in the early universe