http://arxiv.org/abs/2012.06585
The bulk propagation speed of GeV-energy cosmic rays is limited by frequent scattering off hydromagnetic waves. Most galaxy evolution simulations that account for this confinement assume the gas is fully ionized and cosmic rays are well-coupled to Alfv\’en waves; however, multiphase density inhomogeneities, frequently under-resolved in galaxy evolution simulations, induce cosmic ray collisions and ionization-dependent or “plasma-based” transport driven by cosmic ray decoupling and elevated streaming speeds in partially neutral gas. How do cosmic rays navigate and influence such a medium, and can we constrain this transport with observations? In this paper, we simulate cosmic ray fronts impinging upon idealized, partially neutral clouds and lognormally-distributed clumps, with and without plasma-based transport. With these high-resolution simulations, we identify cloud interfaces as crucial regions where cosmic ray fronts can develop a stair-step pressure gradient sufficient to collisionlessly generate waves, overcome ion-neutral damping, and exert a force on the cloud. We find that the acceleration of cold clouds is hindered by only a factor of a few when plasma-based transport is included, with additional dependencies on magnetic field strength and cloud dimensionality. We also probe how cosmic rays sample the background gas and quantify collisional losses. Hadronic gamma-ray emission maps are qualitatively different when plasma-based transport is included, but the overall luminosity varies by only a small factor, as the short cosmic ray residence times in cold clouds are offset by the higher densities that cosmic rays sample.
C. Bustard and E. Zweibel
Tue, 15 Dec 20
125/136
Comments: 25 pages, 15 figures, plus appendix. Submitted to ApJ. Simulation videos can be found at this https URL
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