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A. Lazarian

Publications and source records attributed to A. Lazarian.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2020

The Catalogue for Astrophysical Turbulence Simulations (CATS)

Turbulence is a key process in many fields of astrophysics. Advances in numerical simulations of fluids over the last several decades have revolutionized our understanding of turbulence and related processes such as star formation and cosmic ray propagation. However, data from numerical simulations of astrophysical turbulence are often not made public. We introduce a new simulation-oriented database for the astronomical community: The Catalogue for Astrophysical Turbulence Simulations (CATS), located at www.mhdturbulence.com. CATS includes magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulent box simulation data products generated by the public codes athena++, arepo, enzo, and flash. CATS also includes several synthetic observational data sets, such as turbulent HI data cubes. We also include measured power spectra and 3-point correlation functions from some of these data. We discuss the importance of open source statistical and visualization tools for the analysis of turbulence simulations such as those found in CATS.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2020

Two modes of carbonaceous dust alignment

Radiative Torques (RATs) or Mechanical Torques (METs) acting on irregular grains can induce the alignment of dust grains in respect to the alignment axis (AA), which can be either the direction of the magnetic field, or the direction of the radiation. We show that carbonaceous grains can be aligned with their axes both parallel and perpendicular to the AA and we explore the conditions where the particular mode of alignment takes place. We identify a new process of alignment of charged carbonaceous grains in a turbulent magnetized interstellar medium with respect to an electric field. This field acts on grains accelerated in a turbulent medium and gyro-rotating about a magnetic field. The electric field can also arise from the temporal variations of magnetic field strength in turbulent compressible media. The direction of the electric field is perpendicular to a magnetic field and the carbonaceous grains precess in the electric field because of their electric moments. If this precession is faster than Larmor precession in the magnetic field, the alignment of such grains is with their long axes parallel to magnetic field. We explore the parameter space for which the new mechanism aligns grains with long axes parallel to the magnetic field. We compare this mechanism with another process that provides the same type of alignment, namely, the RAT alignment of grains with insufficiently fast internal relaxation. We describe the conditions for which the particular mode of carbonaceous grain alignment is realized and discuss what information can be obtained by measuring the resulting polarization.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2020

Major Scientific Challenges and Opportunities in Understanding Magnetic Reconnection and Related Explosive Phenomena in Solar and Heliospheric Plasmas

Magnetic reconnection underlies many explosive phenomena in the heliosphere and in laboratory plasmas. The new research capabilities in theory/simulations, observations, and laboratory experiments provide the opportunity to solve the grand scientific challenges summarized in this whitepaper. Success will require enhanced and sustained investments from relevant funding agencies, increased interagency/international partnerships, and close collaborations of the solar, heliospheric, and laboratory plasma communities. These investments will deliver transformative progress in understanding magnetic reconnection and related explosive phenomena including space weather events.

physics.space-ph↗
arXiv2020

Probing Magnetic Field Morphology in Galaxy Clusters with the Gradient Technique

Magnetic fields in the intracluster medium (ICM) affect the structure and the evolution of galaxy clusters. However, their properties are largely unknown, and measuring magnetic fields in galaxy clusters is challenging, especially on large-scales outside of individual radio sources. In this work, we probe the plane-of-the-sky orientation of magnetic fields in clusters using the intensity gradients. The technique is a branch of the Gradient Technique (GT) that employs emission intensity maps from turbulent gas. We utilize the Chandra X-ray images of the Perseus, M 87, Coma, and A2597 galaxy clusters, and the VLA radio observations of the synchrotron emission from Perseus. We find that the fields predominantly follow the sloshing arms in Perseus, which is in agreement with numerical simulations. The GT-predicted magnetic field shows signatures of magnetic draping around rising bubbles driven by supermassive black hole (SMBH) feedback in the centers of cool-core clusters, as well as draping around substructures merging with the Coma cluster. We calculate the mean-field orientation with respect to the radial direction in these clusters. In the central regions of cool-core clusters, the mean orientation of the magnetic fields is preferentially azimuthal. There is a broad agreement between the magnetic field of Perseus predicted using the X-ray and radio data. Further numerical studies and better future observations with higher resolution and the larger effective area will help reduce the uncertainties of this method.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2020

Velocity Centroids Anisotropy and the Signature of different MHD Modes in the Turbulent ISM

Magnetic turbulence is anisotropic as the directions of motion are constrained by the magnetic field. Such anisotropy can be observed in velocity centroids obtained from spectroscopic observations. We use magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations to produce synthetic spectroscopic observations (position-position-velocity data) and study the anisotropy in the structure function of velocity centroid maps. We decomposed the velocity in the simulations into Alfvén, slow and fast-modes and studied how each of them contribute to the observed anisotropy. We found that when the angle between the line of sight and the mean magnetic field is large the Alfvén-mode dominates the observed anisotropy, while for smaller angles the anisotropy is not large enough to be used to probe the magnetization of the media, and it is dominated by the slow-mode. Our results are in fair agreement with the theoretical predictions in Kandel et al.(2016,2017).

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2020

Modeling of Galactic Foreground Polarization with Velocity Gradients

The detection of primordial B-mode polarization is still challenging due to the relatively low amplitude compared to the galactic foregrounds. To remove the contribution from the foreground, a comprehensive picture of the galactic magnetic field is indispensable. The Velocity Gradient Technique (VGT) is promising in tracing magnetic fields based on the modern understanding of the magneto-hydrodynamic turbulence. In this work, we apply VGT to a HI region containing an intermediate velocity cloud and a local velocity cloud, which are distinguishable in position-position-velocity space. We show that VGT gives an excellent agreement with the Planck polarization and stellar polarization. We confirm the advantages of VGT in constructing the 3D galactic magnetic field.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2020

Advancing the Velocity Gradient Technique: Using Gradient Amplitudes and handling thermal broadening

The recent development of the Velocity Gradient Technique allows observers to map magnetic field orientations and magnetization using the direction of velocity gradients. Aside from the directions, amplitudes of velocity gradients also contain valuable information about the underlying properties of magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. In this paper, we explore what physical information is contained in the amplitudes of velocity gradients and discuss how this information can be used to diagnose properties of turbulence in both diffuse and self-gravitating interstellar media. We identify the relations between amplitudes of both intensity and velocity centroid gradients and the sonic Mach number $M_s$ and they are consistent with the theory's predictions. We test the robustness of the method and discuss how to utilize the amplitudes of gradients into self-gravitating media. To extend the velocity gradient technique we also discuss the usage of amplitude method to Position-Position Velocity (PPV) space as a possible way to retrieve the velocity channel maps before the contamination of thermal broadening. We discuss that the Velocity Gradient Technique with these advancements could potentially give a significantly more accurate statistical insight into the properties magnetized turbulence.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2020

Curvature of magnetic field lines in compressible magnetized turbulence: Statistics, magnetization predictions, gradient curvature, modes and self-gravitating media

Magnetic field lines in interstellar media have a rich morphology, which could be characterized by geometrical parameters such as curvature and torsion. In this paper, we explore the statistical properties of magnetic field line curvature $κ$ in compressible magnetized turbulence. We see that both the mean and standard deviation of magnetic field line curvature obey power-law relations to the magnetization. Moreover, the power-law tail of the curvature probability distribution function is also proportional to the Alfvenic Mach number. We also explore whether the curvature method could be used in the field-tracing Velocity Gradient Technique. In particular, we observe that there is a relation between the mean and standard deviation of the curvature probed by velocity gradients to $M_A$. Finally we discuss how curvature is contributed by different MHD modes in interstellar turbulence, and suggests that the eigenvectors of MHD modes could be possibly represented by the natural Fernet-Serrat frame of the magnetic field lines. We discuss possible theoretical and observational applications of the curvature technique, including the extended understanding on a special length scale that characterize the importance of magnetic field curvature in driving MHD turbulence, and how it could be potentially used to study self-gravitating system.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2020

Cosmic ray transport in starburst galaxies

Starburst galaxies are efficient $γ$-ray producers, because their high supernova rates generate copious cosmic ray (CR) protons, and their high gas densities act as thick targets off which these protons can produce neutral pions and thence $γ$-rays. In this paper we present a first-principles calculation of the mechanisms by which CRs propagate through such environments, combining astrochemical models with analysis of turbulence in weakly ionised plasma. We show that CRs cannot scatter off the strong large-scale turbulence found in starbursts, because efficient ion-neutral damping prevents such turbulence from cascading down to the scales of CR gyroradii. Instead, CRs stream along field lines at a rate determined by the competition between streaming instability and ion-neutral damping, leading to transport via a process of field line random walk. This results in an effective diffusion coefficient that is nearly energy-independent up to CR energies of $\sim 1$ TeV. We apply our computed diffusion coefficient to a simple model of CR escape and loss, and show that the resulting $γ$-ray spectra are in good agreement with the observed spectra of the starbursts NGC 253, M82, and Arp 220. In particular, our model reproduces these galaxies' relatively hard GeV $γ$-ray spectra and softer TeV spectra without the need for any fine-tuning of advective escape times or the shape of the CR injection spectrum.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2020

Onset of turbulent fast magnetic reconnection observed in the solar atmosphere

Fast magnetic reconnection powers explosive events throughout the universe, from gamma-ray bursts to solar flares. Despite its importance, the onset of astrophysical fast reconnection is the subject of intense debate and remains an open question in plasma physics. Here we report high-cadence observations of two reconnection-driven solar microflares obtained by the \textit{Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph} that show persistent turbulent flows preceding flaring. The speeds of these flows are comparable to the local sound speed initially, suggesting the onset of fast reconnection in a highly turbulent plasma environment. Our results are in close quantitative agreement with the theory of turbulence-driven reconnection as well as with numerical simulations in which fast magnetic reconnection is induced by turbulence.

astro-ph.SR↗
arXiv2019

Producing Synthetic Maps of Dust Polarization using Velocity Channel Gradient Technique

In modern cosmology, many efforts have been put to detect primordial B-mode of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization from the gravitational waves generated during inflation. Considering the foreground dust contamination of microwave polarization maps, it is essential to obtain a precise prediction for polarization in dust emission. In this work, we show a new method to produce synthetic maps of dust polarization in magnetized turbulent ISM from more abundant high-resolution HI data. By using Velocity Channel Gradient (VChG) technique, we are able to predict both direction and degree of dust polarization by investigating spectroscopic HI information in position-position-velocity (PPV) space. We applied our approach to The Galactic Arecibo L-band feed Array HI (GALFA-HI) data, and find a good correspondence between synthesized maps and PLANCK's polarization measurements at 353 GHz.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2019

Role of Cosmic Ray Streaming and Turbulent Damping in Driving Galactic Winds

Large-scale galactic winds driven by stellar feedback are one phenomenon that influences the dynamical and chemical evolution of a galaxy, redistributing material throughout the circumgalatic medium. Non-thermal feedback from galactic cosmic rays (CRs) -high-energy charged particles accelerated in supernovae and young stars - can impact the efficiency of wind driving. The streaming instability limits the speed at which they can escape. However, in the presence of turbulence, the streaming instability is subject to suppression that depends on the magnetization of turbulence given by its Alfvén Mach number. While previous simulations that relied on a simplified model of CR transport have shown that super-Alfvénic streaming of CRs enhances galactic winds, in the present paper we take into account a realistic model of streaming suppression. We perform three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of a section of a galactic disk and find that turbulent damping dependent on local magnetization of turbulent interstellar medium (ISM) leads to more spatially extended gas and CR distributions compared to the earlier streaming calculations, and that scale-heights of these distributions increase for stronger turbulence. Our results indicate that the star formation rate increases with the level of turbulence in the ISM. We also find that the instantaneous wind mass loading is sensitive to local streaming physics with the mass loading dropping significantly as the strength of turbulence increases.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2019

Tracing Multi-Scale Magnetic Field Structure Using Multiple Chemical Tracers in Giant Molecular Clouds

Probing magnetic fields in Giant Molecular Clouds is often challenging. Fortunately, recently simulations show that analysis of velocity gradients (the Velocity Gradient Technique) can be used to map out the magnetic field morphology of different physical layers within molecular clouds when applied CO isotopologues with different optical depths. Here, we test the effectiveness of the Velocity Gradient Technique in reconstructing the magnetic field structure of the molecular cloud Vela C, employing seven chemical tracers that have different optical depths, i.e. 12CO, 13CO, C18O, CS, HNC, HCO+, and HCN. Our results show good correspondence between the magnetic field morphology inferred from velocity gradients using these different molecular tracers and the magnetic field morphology inferred from BLASTPol polarization observations. We also explore the possibility of using a combination of velocity gradients for multiple chemical tracers to explain the structure of the magnetic field in molecular clouds. We search for signatures of gravitational collapse in the alignment of the velocity gradients and magnetic field and conclude that collapsing regions constitute a small fraction of the cloud.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2019

PICO: Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins

The Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins (PICO) is a proposed probe-scale space mission consisting of an imaging polarimeter operating in frequency bands between 20 and 800 GHz. We describe the science achievable by PICO, which has sensitivity equivalent to more than 3300 Planck missions, the technical implementation, the schedule and cost.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2019

Effects of the magnetic field direction on the Tsallis statistic

We extend the use of the Tsallis statistic to measure the differences in gas dynamics relative to the mean magnetic field present from natural eddy-type motions existing in magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) turbulence. The variation in gas dynamics was estimated using the Tsallis parameters on the incremental probability distribution function of the observables (intensity and velocity centroid) obtained from compressible MHD simulations. We find that the Tsallis statistic is susceptible to the anisotropy produce by the magnetic field, even when anisotropy is percent the Tsallis statistic can be use to determine MHD parameters such as the Sonic Mach number. We quantize the goodness of the Tsallis parameters using the coefficient of determination to measure the differences in the gas dynamics. These parameters also determine the level of magnetization and compressibility of the medium. To further simulate realistic spectroscopic observational data we introduced smoothing, noise, and cloud boundaries to the MHD simulations.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2019

Velocity centroid gradients for absorbing media

We explore how the velocity gradient technique (VGT) can be applied to absorbing media in the case of$^{13}$CO 2-1 emission. The VGT is a new way to trace magnetic fields in the plane of the sky using only spectroscopic observations. We apply the VGT to magnetohydrodynamic turbulence simulations that have been post-processed to include $^{13}$CO 2-1 emission and we calculate the velocity centroid gradients. We find that the velocity centroid gradients trace the projected magnetic field in media with different $^{13}$CO abundances, densities and optical depths. Our study opens up the possibility of using velocity centroid gradients to trace magnetic fields in molecular clouds using 13CO emission.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2019

Mapping of the structure of the galactic magnetic field with velocity gradients: Test using star light polarization

We apply Velocity Channel Gradients (VChGs) and Reduced Velocity Centroids Gradients (RVCGs) to H I data (the LAB survey), obtaining the plane-of-sky component (POS) of the magnetic field as a function of the relative velocity. Assuming a galactic rotation curve, we transformed the relative velocities to distances, constructing the first map of the POS magnetic field at every point of the celestial sphere as a function of the distance. To test the accuracy of our 3D distribution, we used a set of stars with known distances from the stellar polarization catalog. We compared the polarization directions that we obtain with the VChGs and RVCGs against the starlight polarization directions. We find a good correspondence between the derived magnetic field and measured polarization directions, which testifies to the accuracy of this new way of probing the 3D galactic POS magnetic field structure.

astro-ph.GA↗