Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Vega, Cristian
• Boldyrev, Stanislav
• Roytershteyn, Vadim

Titel

Spatial Intermittency of Particle Distribution in Relativistic Plasma Turbulence

Ist Teil von

• The Astrophysical journal, 2023-06, Vol.949 (2), p.98

Ort / Verlag

Philadelphia: The American Astronomical Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Abstract Relativistic magnetically dominated turbulence is an efficient engine for particle acceleration in a collisionless plasma. Ultrarelativistic particles accelerated by interactions with turbulent fluctuations form nonthermal power-law distribution functions in the momentum (or energy) space, f ( γ ) d γ ∝ γ − α d γ , where γ is the Lorenz factor. We argue that in addition to exhibiting non-Gaussian distributions over energies, particles energized by relativistic turbulence also become highly intermittent in space. Based on particle-in-cell numerical simulations and phenomenological modeling, we propose that the bulk plasma density has lognormal statistics, while the density of the accelerated particles, n , has a power-law distribution function, P ( n ) dn ∝ n − β dn . We argue that the scaling exponents are related as β ≈ α + 1, which is broadly consistent with numerical simulations. Non-space-filling, intermittent distributions of plasma density and energy fluctuations may have implications for plasma heating and for radiation produced by relativistic turbulence.