Diffusion of Cosmic Rays in a Multiphase Interstellar Medium Shocked by a Supernova Remnant Blast Wave

  • Roh, Soonyoung (College of Science, Ibaraki University) ;
  • Inutsuka, Shu-ichiro (Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University) ;
  • Inoue, Tsuyoshi (Division of Theoretical Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)
  • Published : 2015.10.15

Abstract

Supernova remnants (SNRs) are one of the most energetic astrophysical events and are thought to be the dominant source of Galactic cosmic rays (CRs). A recent report on observations of gamma rays from the vicinity of SNRs have shown strong evidence that Galactic CR protons are accelerated by the shock waves of the SNRs. The actual gamma-ray emission from pion decay should depend on the diffusion of CRs in the interstellar medium. In order to quantitatively analyze the diffusion of high-energy CRs from acceleration sites, we have performed test particle numerical simulations of CR protons using a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulation of an interstellar medium swept-up by a blast wave. We analyse the CRs diffusion at a length scale of order a few pc, and show the Richtmeyer-Meshkov instability can provide enough turbulence downstream of the shock to make the diffusion coefficient close to the Bohm level for energy larger than 30 TeV for a realistic interstellar medium.

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