arXiv subjects

Ellen G. Zweibel

Publications and source records attributed to Ellen G. Zweibel.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

On the double-adiabatic equations in the relativistic regime

We revisit the double adiabatic evolution equations and extend them to the relativistic and ultrarelativistic regimes. We analytically solve the relativistic, time-dependent drift kinetic equation for a homogeneous, magnetized, collisionless plasma and obtain a solution explicitly dependent on the magnetic field and density variations. In the case of an initial relativistic Maxwellian distribution, a natural extension to an anisotropic Maxwell-Jüttner is obtained. We calculate the moments of this time-dependent solution and obtain analytical expressions for the evolution of the perpendicular and parallel pressures in the ultrarelativistic case. We numerically solve the moment equations in the relativistic case and obtain general expressions for the double-adiabatic equations in this regime. We confirm our results using fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of shearing and compressing boxes. Our findings can be readily applied to relativistic species including cosmic-rays and electron-positron pairs, present in astrophysical plasmas like pulsar wind nebulae, astrophysical jets, black hole accretion flows, and Van Allen radiation belts.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2025

The Impact of Cosmic Ray Transport on the $γ$-Ray Luminosity of Diffuse Gas

Observations of $γ$-rays from diffuse gas provide the opportunity to study the distribution of high energy particles in different astrophysical environments. In the circumgalactic medium (CGM) and the intracluster medium (ICM), it is expected that relativistic cosmic rays collide with thermal particles and produce $γ$-rays through pion decay. The $γ$-ray luminosity of a plasma depends on where cosmic rays are: if they are in denser gas, they produce more $γ$-rays. In this work, we study how different cosmic-ray transport mechanisms impact the $γ$-ray luminosity of a turbulent, multiphase medium formed from an initially diffuse medium. Two quantities set the luminosity: the average cosmic-ray energy density and the correlation of cosmic-ray energy and gas density. Overall, cosmic rays must escape cold dense regions in order to produce less $γ$-ray emission and be consistent with observations. Our simulations with fast transport mechanisms (either diffusion or streaming) are degenerate: they each produce a lower $γ$-ray luminosity than slow transport simulations by two orders of magnitude. This result means that fast transport (particularly in dense clumps) is necessary for simulations to agree with the dearth of observations of $γ$-ray emission from diffuse gas like the CGM and ICM. We also show the significant difference in luminosity is the result of cosmic-ray reacceleration. This reacceleration is different from the turbulent reacceleration described by Ptuskin (1988). Instead, condensing, cold clouds drive a significant increase in the average cosmic-ray energy and, as a result, the $γ$-ray luminosity.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

Cosmic-Ray Feedback from Supernovae in a Parker-Unstable Medium

Supernova energy drives interstellar medium (ISM) turbulence and can help launch galactic winds. What difference does it make if $10\%$ of the energy is initially deposited into cosmic rays? To answer this question and study cosmic-ray feedback, we perform galactic patch simulations of a stratified ISM. We compare two magnetohydrodynamic and cosmic ray (MHD+CR) simulations, which are identical except for how each supernova's energy is injected. In one, $10\%$ of the energy is injected as cosmic-ray energy. In the other case, energy injection is strictly thermal and kinetic. We find that cosmic-ray injections drive a faster, hotter, and more massive outflow long after the injections occur. Both simulations show the formation of cold clouds (with a total mass fraction $>50\%$) through the Parker instability and thermal instability. The Parker instability simultaneously produces high mass loading factors $η> 10^3$ as it requires few supernovae. We also show how the Parker instability naturally leads to a decorrelation of cosmic-ray pressure and gas density. This decorrelation leads to a significant decrease in the calorimetric fraction for injected cosmic rays, but it depends on having a highly resolved magnetic field.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

Drift-cyclotron loss-cone instability in 3D simulations of a sloshing-ion simple mirror

The kinetic stability of collisionless, sloshing beam-ion (45° pitch angle) plasma is studied in a 3D simple magnetic mirror, mimicking the Wisconsin High-temperature superconductor Axisymmetric Mirror (WHAM) experiment. The collisional Fokker-Planck code CQL3D-m provides a slowing-down beam-ion distribution to initialize the kinetic-ion/fluid-electron code Hybrid-VPIC, which then simulates free plasma decay without external heating or fueling. Over 1-10 $μ$s, drift-cyclotron loss-cone (DCLC) modes grow and saturate in amplitude. DCLC scatters ions to a marginally-stable distribution with gas-dynamic rather than classical-mirror confinement. Sloshing ions can trap cool (low-energy) ions in an electrostatic potential well to stabilize DCLC, but DCLC itself does not scatter sloshing beam-ions into said well. Instead, cool ions must come from external sources such as charge-exchange collisions with a low-density neutral population. Manually adding cool ~1 keV ions improves beam-ion confinement several-fold in Hybrid-VPIC simulations, which qualitatively corroborates prior measurements from real mirror devices with sloshing ions.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2024

Cosmic Ray Mediated Thermal Fronts in the Warm-Hot Circumgalactic Medium

We investigate the 1D plane-parallel front connecting the warm ($10^4$ K) and hot ($10^6$ K) phases of the circumgalactic medium (CGM), focusing on the influence of cosmic rays (CRs) in shaping these transition layers. We find that cosmic rays dictate the thermal balance while other fluxes (thermal conduction, radiative cooling, and gas flow) adjust to compensate. We compute column density ratios for selected transition temperature ions and compare them with observational data. While most of our models fail to reproduce the observations, a few are successful, although we make no claims for their uniqueness. Some of the discrepancies may indicate challenges in capturing the profiles in cooler, photoionized regions, as has been suggested for by previous efforts to model thermal transition layers.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Cosmic Ray Feedback on Bi-stable ISM Turbulence

While cosmic rays $(E\gtrsim 1\,\mathrm{GeV})$ are well coupled to a galaxy's interstellar medium (ISM) at scales of $L>100\,\mathrm{pc}$, adjusting stratification and driving outflows, their impact on small scales is less clear. Based on calculations of the cosmic ray diffusion coefficient from observations of the grammage in the Milky Way, cosmic rays have little time to dynamically impact the ISM on those small scales. Using numerical simulations, we explore how more complex cosmic ray transport could allow cosmic rays to couple to the ISM on small scales. We create a two-zone model of cosmic ray transport, with the cosmic ray diffusion coefficient set at the estimated Milky Way value in cold gas but smaller in warm gas. We compare this model to simulations with a constant diffusion coefficient. Quicker diffusion through cold gas allows more cold gas to form compared to a simulation with a constant, small diffusion coefficient. However, slower diffusion in warm gas allows cosmic rays to take energy from the turbulent cascade anisotropically. This cosmic ray energization comes at the expense of turbulent energy which would otherwise be lost during radiative cooling. Finally, we show our two-zone model is capable of matching observational estimates of the grammage for some transport paths through the simulation.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Secondary Whistler and Ion-cyclotron Instabilities driven by Mirror Modes in Galaxy Clusters

Electron cyclotron waves (whistlers), are commonly observed in plasmas near Earth and the solar wind. In the presence of nonlinear mirror modes, bursts of whistlers, usually called lion roars, have been observed within low magnetic field regions associated to these modes. In the intracluster medium (ICM) of galaxy clusters, the excitation of the mirror instability is expected, but it is not yet clear whether electron and ion cyclotron waves can also be present under conditions where gas pressure dominates over magnetic pressure (high $β$). In this work, we perform fully kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of a plasma subject to a continuous amplification of the mean magnetic field $\textbf{B}(t)$ to study the nonlinear stages of the mirror instability and the ensuing excitation of whistler and ion cyclotron (IC) waves under ICM conditions. Once mirror modes reach nonlinear amplitudes, both whistler and IC waves start to emerge simultaneously, with sub-dominant amplitudes, propagating in low-$\textbf{B}$ regions, and quasi-parallel to $\textbf{B}(t)$. We show that the underlying source of excitation is the pressure anisotropy of electrons and ions trapped in mirror modes with loss-cone type distributions. We also observe that IC waves play an essential role in regulating the ion pressure anisotropy at nonlinear stages. We argue that whistler and IC waves are a concomitant feature at late stages of the mirror instability even at high-$β$, and therefore expected to be present in astrophysical environments like the ICM. We discuss the implications of our results for collisionless heating and dissipation of turbulence in the ICM.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

The Impact of Cosmic Ray Injection on Magnetic Flux Tubes in a Galactic Disk

In galactic disks, the Parker instability results when non-thermal pressure support exceeds a certain threshold. The non-thermal pressures considered in the Parker instability are cosmic ray pressure and magnetic pressure. This instability takes a long time to saturate $(>500 \, \mathrm{Myr})$ and assumes a background with fixed cosmic ray pressure to gas pressure ratio. In reality, galactic cosmic rays are injected into localized regions $(< 100 \,\mathrm{pc})$ by events like supernovae, increasing the cosmic ray pressure to gas pressure ratio. In this work, we examine the effect of such cosmic ray injection on large scales $ (\sim 1\,\mathrm{kpc})$ in cosmic ray magnetohydrodynamic simulations using the \texttt{Athena++} code. We vary the background properties, dominant cosmic ray transport mechanism, and injection characteristics between our simulation runs. We find the injection will disrupt the interstellar medium on shorter timescales than the Parker instability. If cosmic ray transport by advection is dominant, cosmic ray injection disrupts the disk on short time scales $(<100\,\mathrm{Myr})$. If cosmic ray transport by the streaming instability is dominant, the injection creates a buoyant flux tube long after the initial injection $(>150\,\mathrm{Myr})$. Finally, when cosmic ray transport by diffusion dominates, the injected cosmic rays make an entire flux tube over pressured in a short time $(\sim 10 \, \mathrm{Myr})$. This over pressure pushes gas off the tube and drives buoyant rise on time scales similar to the advection dominated case.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Electron Re-acceleration via Ion Cyclotron Waves in the Intracluster Medium

In galaxy clusters, the intracluster medium (ICM) is expected to host a diffuse, long-lived, and invisible population of "fossil" cosmic-ray electrons (CRe) with 1-100 MeV energies. These CRe, if re-accelerated by 100x in energy, can contribute synchrotron luminosity to cluster radio halos, relics, and phoenices. Re-acceleration may be aided by CRe scattering upon the ion-Larmor-scale waves that spawn when ICM is compressed, dilated, or sheared. We study CRe scattering and energy gain due to ion cyclotron (IC) waves generated by continuously-driven compression in 1D fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations. We find that pitch-angle scattering of CRe by IC waves induces energy gain via magnetic pumping. In an optimal range of IC-resonant momenta, CRe may gain up to ~10-30% of their initial energy in one compress/dilate cycle with magnetic field amplification ~3-6x, assuming adiabatic decompression without further scattering and averaging over initial pitch angle.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

A Heating Mechanism via Magnetic Pumping in the Intracluster Medium

Turbulence driven by AGN activity, cluster mergers and galaxy motion constitutes an attractive energy source for heating the intracluster medium (ICM). How this energy dissipates into the ICM plasma remains unclear, given its low collisionality and high magnetization (precluding viscous heating by Coulomb processes). Kunz et al. 2011 proposed a viable heating mechanism based on the anisotropy of the plasma pressure (gyroviscous heating) under ICM conditions. The present paper builds upon that work and shows that particles can be gyroviscously heated by large-scale turbulent fluctuations via magnetic pumping. We study how the anisotropy evolves under a range of forcing frequencies, what waves and instabilities are generated and demonstrate that the particle distribution function acquires a high energy tail. For this, we perform particle-in-cell simulations where we periodically vary the mean magnetic field $\textbf{B}(t)$. When $\textbf{B}(t)$ grows (dwindles), a pressure anisotropy $P_{\perp}>P_{\parallel}$ ($P_{\perp}< P_{\parallel}$) builds up ($P_{\perp}$ and $P_{\parallel}$ are, respectively, the pressures perpendicular and parallel to $\textbf{B}(t)$). These pressure anisotropies excite mirror ($P_{\perp}>P_{\parallel}$) and oblique firehose ($P_{\parallel}>P_{\perp}$) instabilities, which trap and scatter the particles, limiting the anisotropy and providing a channel to heat the plasma. The efficiency of this mechanism depends on the frequency of the large-scale turbulent fluctuations and the efficiency of the scattering the instabilities provide in their nonlinear stage. We provide a simplified analytical heating model that captures the phenomenology involved. Our results show that this process can be relevant in dissipating and distributing turbulent energy at kinetic scales in the ICM.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Extragalactic magnetism with SOFIA (SALSA Legacy Program) -- IV: Program overview and first results on the polarization fraction

We present the first data release of the Survey on extragALactic magnetiSm with SOFIA (SALSA Legacy Program) with a set of 14 nearby ($<20$ Mpc) galaxies with resolved imaging polarimetric observations using HAWC+ from $53$ to $214$ $μ$m at a resolution of $5-18$" ($90$ pc $-$ $1$ kpc). We introduce the definitions and background on extragalactic magnetism, and present the scientific motivation and sample selection of the program. Here, we focus on the general trends in the emissive polarization fraction. Far-infrared polarimetric observations trace the thermal polarized emission of magnetically aligned dust grains across the galaxy disks with polarization fractions of $P=0-15$% in the cold, $T_{\rm d} = [19,48]$ K, and dense, $\log_{10}(N_{\rm HI+H_{2}}) = [19.96,22.91]$, interstellar medium. The spiral galaxies show a median $\langle P_{154μm} \rangle = 3.3\pm0.9 $% across the disks. We report the first polarized spectrum of starburst galaxies showing a minimum within $89-154$ $μ$m. The falling $53-154$ $μ$m polarized spectrum may be due to a decrease in the dust grain alignment efficiency produced by variations in dust temperatures along the line-of-sight in the galactic outflow. We find that the starburst galaxies and the star-forming regions within normal galaxies have the lowest polarization fractions. We find that 50% (7 out of 14) of the galaxies require a broken power-law in the $P-N_{HI+H_{2}}$ and $P-T_{d}$ relations with three different trends. Group 1 has a relative increase of anisotropic random B-fields produced by compression or shear of B-fields in the galactic outflows, starburst rings, and inner-bar of galaxies; and Groups 2 and 3 have a relative increase of isotropic random B-fields driven by star-forming regions in the spiral arms, and/or an increase of dust grain alignment efficiency caused by shock-driven regions or evolutionary stages of a galaxy.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Extragalactic Magnetism with SOFIA (Legacy Program) -- I: The magnetic field in the multi-phase interstellar medium of M51

The recent availability of high-resolution far-infrared (FIR) polarization observations of galaxies using HAWC+/SOFIA has facilitated studies of extragalactic magnetic fields in the cold and dense molecular disks.We investigate if any significant structural differences are detectable in the kpc-scale magnetic field of the grand design face-on spiral galaxy M51 when traced within the diffuse (radio) and the dense and cold (FIR) interstellar medium (ISM). Our analysis reveals a complex scenario where radio and FIR polarization observations do not necessarily trace the same magnetic field structure. We find that the magnetic field in the arms is wrapped tighter at 154um than at 3 and 6 cm; statistically significant lower values for the magnetic pitch angle are measured at FIR in the outskirts (R > 7 kpc) of the galaxy. This difference is not detected in the interarm region. We find strong correlations of the polarization fraction and total intensity at FIR and radio with the gas column density and 12CO(1-0) velocity dispersion. We conclude that the arms show a relative increase of small-scale turbulent B-fields at regions with increasing column density and dispersion velocities of the molecular gas. No correlations are found with HI neutral gas. The star formation rate shows a clear correlation with the radio polarized intensity, which is not found in FIR, pointing to a small-scale dynamo-driven B-field amplification scenario. This work shows that multi-wavelength polarization observations are key to disentangling the interlocked relation between star formation, magnetic fields, and gas kinematics in the multi-phase ISM.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Cosmic Ray Transport, Energy Loss, and Influence in the Multiphase Interstellar Medium

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 Alfvén waves; however, multiphase density inhomogeneities, frequently under-resolved in galaxy evolution simulations, induce cosmic ray collisions and ionization-dependent 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 ionization-dependent 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 ionization-dependent 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 ionization-dependent 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.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

HAWC+ Far-Infrared Observations of the Magnetic Field Geometry in M51 and NGC 891

SOFIA HAWC+ polarimetry at $154~\micron$ is reported for the face-on galaxy M51 and the edge-on galaxy NGC 891. For M51, the polarization vectors generally follow the spiral pattern defined by the molecular gas distribution, the far-infrared (FIR) intensity contours, and other tracers of star formation. The fractional polarization is much lower in the FIR-bright central regions than in the outer regions, and we rule out loss of grain alignment and variations in magnetic field strength as causes. When compared with existing synchrotron observations, which sample different regions with different weighting, we find the net position angles are strongly correlated, the fractional polarizations are moderately correlated, but the polarized intensities are uncorrelated. We argue that the low fractional polarization in the central regions must be due to significant numbers of highly turbulent segments across the beam and along lines of sight in the beam in the central 3 kpc of M51. For NGC 891, the FIR polarization vectors within an intensity contour of 1500 $\rm{MJy~sr^{-1}}$ are oriented very close to the plane of the galaxy. The FIR polarimetry is probably sampling the magnetic field geometry in NGC 891 much deeper into the disk than is possible with NIR polarimetry and radio synchrotron measurements. In some locations in NGC 891 the FIR polarization is very low, suggesting we are preferentially viewing the magnetic field mostly along the line of sight, down the length of embedded spiral arms. There is tentative evidence for a vertical field in the polarized emission off the plane of the disk.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Cosmic Ray Driven Outflows from the Large Magellanic Cloud: Contributions to the LMC Filament

In this paper, we build from previous work (Bustard et al. 2018) and present simulations of recent (within the past Gyr), magnetized, cosmic ray driven outflows from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), including our first attempts to explicitly use the derived star formation history of the LMC to seed outflow generation. We run a parameter set of simulations for different LMC gas masses and cosmic ray transport treatments, and we make preliminary comparisons to published outflow flux estimates, neutral and ionized hydrogen observations, and Faraday rotation measure maps. We additionally report on the gas mass that becomes unbound from the LMC disk and swept by ram pressure into the Trailing Magellanic Stream. We find that, even for our largest outburst, the mass contribution to the Stream is still quite small, as much of the outflow-turned-halo gas is shielded on the LMC's far-side due to the LMC's primarily face-on infall through the Milky Way halo over the past Gyr. On the LMC's near-side, past outflows have fought an uphill battle against ram pressure, with near-side halo mass being at least a factor of a few smaller than the far-side. Absorption line studies probing only the LMC foreground, then, may be severely underestimating the total mass of the LMC halo formed by outflows.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Small-scale structure traced by neutral hydrogen absorption in the direction of multiple-component radio continuum sources

We have studied the small scale distribution of atomic hydrogen (HI) using 21-cm absorption spectra against multiple-component background radio continuum sources from the 21-SPONGE survey and the Millennium Arecibo Absorption Line Survey. We have found $>5σ$ optical depth variations at a level of $\sim0.03-0.5$ between 13 out of 14 adjacent sightlines separated by a few arcseconds to a few arcminutes, suggesting the presence of neutral structures on spatial scales from a few to thousands of AU (which we refer to as tiny scale atomic structure, TSAS). The optical depth variations are strongest in directions where the HI column density and the fraction of HI in the cold neutral medium (CNM) are highest, which tend to be at low Galactic latitudes. By measuring changes in the properties of Gaussian components fitted to the absorption spectra, we find that changes in both the peak optical depth and the linewidth of TSAS absorption features contribute to the observed optical depth variations, while changes in the central velocity do not appear to strongly impact the observed variations. Both thermal and turbulent motions contribute appreciably to the linewidths, but the turbulence does not appear strong enough to confine overpressured TSAS. In a majority of cases, the TSAS column densities are sufficiently high that these structures can radiatively cool fast enough to maintain thermal equilibrium with their surroundings, even if they are overpressured. We also find that a majority of TSAS is associated with the CNM. For TSAS in the direction of the Taurus molecular cloud and the local Leo cold cloud, we estimate densities over an order of magnitude higher than typical CNM densities.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

The Role of Pressure Anisotropy in Cosmic Ray Hydrodynamics

Cosmic ray propagation in the Milky Way and other galaxies is largely diffusive, with mean free path determined primarily by pitch angle scattering from hydromagnetic waves with wavelength of order the cosmic ray gyroradius. In the theory of cosmic ray self confinement, the waves are generated by instabilities driven by the cosmic rays themselves. The dominant instability is due to bulk motion, or streaming, of the cosmic rays, parallel to the background magnetic field B, and transfers cosmic ray momentum and energy to the thermal gas as well as confining the cosmic rays. Classical arguments and recent numerical simulations show that self confinement due to the streaming instability breaks down unless the cosmic ray pressure and thermal gas density gradients parallel to B are aligned, a condition which is unlikely to always be satisfied We investigate an alternative mechanism for cosmic ray self confinement and heating of thermal gas based on pressure anisotropy instability. Although pressure anisotropy is demonstrably less effective than streaming instability as a self confinement and heating mechanism on global scales, it may be important on mesoscales, particularly near sites of cosmic ray injection.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

A Dynamical Study of Extraplanar Diffuse Ionized Gas in NGC 5775

The structure and kinematics of gaseous, disk-halo interfaces are imprinted with the processes that transfer mass, metals, and energy between galactic disks and their environments. We study the extraplanar diffuse ionized gas (eDIG) layer in the interacting, star-forming galaxy NGC 5775 to better understand the consequences of star-formation feedback on the dynamical state of the thick-disk interstellar medium (ISM). Combining emission-line spectroscopy from the Robert Stobie Spectrograph on the Southern African Large Telescope with radio continuum observations from Continuum Halos in Nearby Galaxies - an EVLA Survey, we ask whether thermal, turbulent, magnetic field, and cosmic-ray pressure gradients can stably support the eDIG layer in dynamical equilibrium. This model fails to reproduce the observed exponential electron scale heights of the eDIG thick disk and halo on the northeast ($h_{z,e} = 0.6, 7.5$ kpc) and southwest ($h_{z,e} = 0.8, 3.6$ kpc) sides of the galaxy at $R < 11$ kpc. We report the first definitive detection of an increasing eDIG velocity dispersion as a function of height above the disk. Blueshifted gas along the minor axis at large distances from the midplane hints at a disk-halo circulation and/or ram pressure effects caused by the ongoing interaction with NGC 5774. This work motivates further integral field unit and/or Fabry-Perot spectroscopy of galaxies with a range of star-formation rates to develop a spatially-resolved understanding of the role of star-formation feedback in shaping the kinematics of the disk-halo interface.

astro-ph.GA↗