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Francesco Miniati

Publications and source records attributed to Francesco Miniati.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

Suppression of pair beam instabilities in a laboratory analogue of blazar pair cascades

The generation of dense electron-positron pair beams in the laboratory can enable direct tests of theoretical models of $\gamma$-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei. We have successfully achieved this using ultra-relativistic protons accelerated by the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN. In the first application of this experimental platform, the stability of the pair beam is studied as it propagates through a metre-length plasma, analogous to TeV $\gamma$-ray induced pair cascades in the intergalactic medium. It has been argued that pair beam instabilities disrupt the cascade, thus accounting for the observed lack of reprocessed GeV emission from TeV blazars. If true this would remove the need for a moderate strength intergalactic magnetic field to explain the observations. We find that the pair beam instability is suppressed if the beam is not perfectly collimated or monochromatic, hence the lower limit to the intergalactic magnetic field inferred from $\gamma$-ray observations of blazars is robust.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2025

Time-Embedded Convolutional Neural Networks for Modeling Plasma Heat Transport

We introduce a time-embedded convolutional neural network (TCNN) for modeling spatiotemporal heat transport in plasmas, particularly under strongly nonlocal conditions. In our earlier work, the LMV-Informed Neural Network (LINN) (Luo et al., arXiv:2506.16619) combined prior knowledge from the LMV model with kinetic Particle-in-Cell (PIC) data to improve kernel-based heat-flux predictions. While effective under moderately nonlocal conditions, LINN produced physically inconsistent kernels in strongly time-dependent regimes due to its reliance on the quasi-stationary LMV formulation. To overcome this limitation, TCNN is designed to capture the coupled evolution of both the normalized heat flux and the characteristic nonlocality parameter using a unified neural architecture informed by underlying physical principles. Trained on fully kinetic PIC simulations, TCNN accurately reproduces nonlocal dynamics across a broad range of collisionalities. Our results demonstrate that the combination of time modulation, coupled prediction, and convolutional depth significantly enhances predictive performance, offering a data-driven yet physically consistent framework for multiscale plasma transport problems.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2025

Learning Heat Transport Kernels Using a Nonlocal Heat Transport Theory-Informed Neural Network

We present a data-driven framework for the modeling of nonlocal heat transport in plasmas using a nonlocal theory informed neural network trained on kinetic Particle-in-Cell simulations that span both local and nonlocal regimes. The model learns spatiotemporal heat flux kernels directly from simulation data, capturing dynamic transport behaviors beyond the reach of classical formulations. Unlike time-independent kernel models such as Luciani Mora Virmont and Schurtz Nicola\"i Busquet models, our approach yields physically grounded, time-evolving kernels that adapt to varying plasma conditions. The resulting predictions show strong agreement with kinetic benchmarks across regimes. This offers a promising direction for data-driven modeling of nonlocal heat transport and contributes to a deeper understanding of plasma dynamics.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2021

Learning Transport Processes with Machine Intelligence

We present a machine learning based approach to address the study of transport processes, ubiquitous in continuous mechanics, with particular attention to those phenomena ruled by complex micro-physics, impractical to theoretical investigation, yet exhibiting emergent behavior describable by a closed mathematical expression. Our machine learning model, built using simple components and following a few well established practices, is capable of learning latent representations of the transport process substantially closer to the ground truth than expected from the nominal error characterising the data, leading to sound generalisation properties. This is demonstrated through an idealized study of the long standing problem of heat flux suppression relevant to fusion and cosmic plasmas. Our analysis shows that the result applies beyond those case specific assumptions and that, in particular, the accuracy of the learned representation is controllable through knowledge of the data quality (error properties) and a suitable choice of the dataset size. While the learned representation can be used as a plug-in for numerical modeling purposes, it can also be leveraged with the above error analysis to obtain reliable mathematical expressions describing the transport mechanism and of great theoretical value.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2017

Axion driven cosmic magneto-genesis during the QCD crossover

We propose a mechanism for the generation of a magnetic field in the early universe during the QCD crossover assuming that dark matter is made of axions. Thermoelectric fields arise at pressure gradients in the primordial plasma due to the difference in charge, energy density and equation of state between the quark and lepton components. The axion field is coupled to the EM field, so when its spatial gradient is misaligned with the thermoelectric field, an electric current is driven. Due to the finite resistivity of the plasma an electric field appears that is generally rotational. For a QCD axion mass consistent with observational constraints and a conventional efficiency for turbulent dynamo amplification --- driven by the same pressure gradients responsible for the thermoelectric fields --- a magnetic field is generated on subhorizon scales. After significant Alfv\'enic unwinding it reaches a present day strength of $B \sim 10^{-13 }$ G on a characteristic scale $L_B \sim $ 20 pc. The resulting combination of $BL_B^{1/2}$ is significantly stronger than in any astrophysical scenario, providing a clear test for the cosmological origin of the field through $\gamma$-ray observations of distant blazars. The amplitude of the pressure gradients may be inferred from the detection of concomitant gravitational waves, while several experiments are underway to confirm or rule out the existence of axions.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2016

Faraday Rotation Measure Synthesis of intermediate redshift quasars as a probe of intervening matter

There is evidence that magnetized material along the line of sight to distant quasars is detectable in the polarization properties of the background sources. The polarization properties appear to be correlated with the presence of intervening MgII absorption, which is thought to arise in outflowing material from star forming galaxies. In order to investigate this further, we have obtained high spectral resolution polarization measurements, with the VLA and ATCA, of a set of 49 unresolved quasars for which we have high quality optical spectra. These enable us to produce a Faraday Depth spectrum for each source, using Rotation Measure Synthesis. Our new independent radio data confirms that interveners are strongly associated with depolarization. We characterize the complexity of the Faraday Depth spectrum using a number of parameters and show how these are related, or not, to the depolarization and to the presence of MgII absorption along the line of sight. We argue that complexity and structure in the Faraday Depth distribution likely arise from both intervening material and intrinsically to the background source and attempt to separate these. We find that the strong radio depolarization effects associated with intervening material at redshifts out to $z \approx 1$ arise from inhomogeneous Faraday screens producing a dispersion in Rotation Measure across individual sources of around 10~rad/m$^2$. This is likely produced by disordered fields with strengths of at least $3\;\mu$G.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2015

Self-similar energetics in large clusters of galaxies

Massive galaxy clusters are filled with a hot, turbulent and magnetized intra-cluster medium. Still forming under the action of gravitational instability, they grow in mass by accretion of supersonic flows. These flows partially dissipate into heat through a complex network of large-scale shocks [1], while residual transonic flows create giant turbulent eddies and cascades [2,3]. Turbulence heats the intra-cluster medium [4] and also amplifies magnetic energy by way of dynamo action [5-8]. However, the pattern regulating the transformation of gravitational energy into kinetic, thermal, turbulent and magnetic energies remains unknown. Here we report that the energy components of the intra-cluster medium are ordered according to a permanent hierarchy, in which the ratio of thermal to turbulent to magnetic energy densities remains virtually unaltered throughout the cluster's history, despite evolution of each individual component and the drive towards equipartition of the turbulent dynamo. This result revolves around the approximately constant efficiency of turbulence generation from the gravitational energy that is freed during mass accretion, revealed by our computational model of cosmological structure formation [3,9]. The permanent character of this hierarchy reflects yet another type of self-similarity in cosmology [10-13], while its structure, consistent with current data [14-18], encodes information about the efficiency of turbulent heating and dynamo action.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2015

Turbulent Amplification and Structure of the Intracluster Magnetic Field

We compare DNS calculations of homogeneous isotropic turbulence with the statistical properties of intra-cluster turbulence from the Matryoshka Run (Miniati 2014) and find remarkable similarities between their inertial ranges. This allowed us to use the time dependent statistical properties of intra-cluster turbulence to evaluate dynamo action in the intra-cluster medium, based on earlier results from numerically resolved nonlinear magneto-hydrodynamic turbulent dynamo (Beresnyak 2012). We argue that this approach is necessary (a) to properly normalize dynamo action to the available intra-cluster turbulent energy and (b) to overcome the limitations of low Re affecting current numerical models of the intra-cluster medium. We find that while the properties of intra-cluster magnetic field are largely insensitive to the value and origin of the seed field, the resulting values for the Alfven speed and the outer scale of the magnetic field are consistent with current observational estimates, basically confirming the idea that magnetic field in today's galaxy clusters is a record of its past turbulent activity.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2014

The Matryoshka Run (II): Time Dependent Turbulence Statistics, Stochastic Particle Acceleration and Microphysics Impact in a Massive Galaxy Cluster

We use the Matryoshka run to study the time dependent statistics of structure-formation driven turbulence in the intracluster medium of a 10$^{15}M_\odot$ galaxy cluster. We investigate the turbulent cascade in the inner Mpc for both compressional and incompressible velocity components. The flow maintains approximate conditions of fully developed turbulence, with departures thereof settling in about an eddy-turnover-time. Turbulent velocity dispersion remains above $700$ km s$^{-1}$ even at low mass accretion rate, with the fraction of compressional energy between 10% and 40%. Normalisation and slope of compressional turbulence is susceptible to large variations on short time scales, unlike the incompressible counterpart. A major merger occurs around redshift $z\simeq0$ and is accompanied by a long period of enhanced turbulence, ascribed to temporal clustering of mass accretion related to spatial clustering of matter. We test models of stochastic acceleration by compressional modes for the origin of diffuse radio emission in galaxy clusters. The turbulence simulation model constrains an important unknown of this complex problem and brings forth its dependence on the elusive micro-physics of the intracluster plasma. In particular, the specifics of the plasma collisionality and the dissipation physics of weak shocks affect the cascade of compressional modes with strong impact on the acceleration rates. In this context radio halos emerge as complex phenomena in which a hierarchy of processes acting on progressively smaller scales are at work. Stochastic acceleration by compressional modes implies statistical correlation of radio power and spectral index with merging cores distance, both testable in principle with radio surveys.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2014

The X-Ray Zurich Environmental Study (X-ZENS). II. X-ray Observations of the Diffuse Intragroup Medium in Galaxy Groups

We present the results of a pilot XMM-$Newton$ and $Chandra$ program aimed at studying the diffuse intragroup medium (DIM) of optically-selected nearby groups from the Zurinch ENvironmental Study (ZENS) catalog. The groups are in a narrow mass range about $10^{13}M_\odot$, a mass scale at which the interplay between the DIM and the group member galaxies is still largely unprobed. X-ray emission from the DIM is detected in the energy band 0.5--2 keV with flux $\le 10^{-14}$ erg cm$^{-1}$ s$^{-1}$, which is one order of magnitude fainter than for typical ROSAT groups (RASS). For many groups we set upper limits to the X-ray luminosity, indicating that the detections are likely probing the upper envelope of the X-ray emitting groups. We find evidence for our optically selected groups to be under-luminous with respect to predictions from X-ray scaling relations. X-ray mass determinations are in best agreement with those based on the member galaxies bulge luminosity, followed by their total optical luminosity and velocity dispersion. We measure a stellar mass fraction with a median value of about 1$\%$, with a contribution from the most massive galaxies between 30 to 50 \%. Optical and X-ray data give often complementary answers concerning the dynamical state of the groups, and are essential for a complete picture of the system. Extending this pilot program to a larger sample of groups is mandatory to unveil any imprint of interaction between member galaxies and DIM in halo potentials of key importance for environmentally-driven galactic evolution.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2013

The Matryoshka Run: Eulerian Refinement Strategy to Study Statistics of Turbulence in Virialized Cosmic Structures

We study the statistical properties of turbulence driven by structure formation in a massive merging galaxy cluster at z=0. The development of turbulence is ensured as the largest eddy turnover time is much shorter than the Hubble time independent of mass and redshift. We achieve a large dynamic range of spatial scales through a novel Eulerian refinement strategy where the cluster volume is refined with progressively finer uniform nested grids during gravitational collapse. This provides an unprecedented resolution of 7.3 h^{-1} kpc across the virial volume. The probability density functions of various velocity derived quantities exhibit the features characteristic of fully developed compressible turbulence observed in dedicated periodic-box simulations. Shocks generate only 60% of the total vorticity within \rvir/3 region and 40% beyond that. We compute second and third order, longitudinal and transverse, structure functions for both solenoidal and compressional components, in the cluster core, virial region and beyond. The structure functions exhibit a well defined inertial range. The injection scale is comparable to the virial radius but increases towards the outskirts. Within \rvir/3, the spectral slope of the solenoidal component is close to Kolmogorov's, but for the compressional component is substantially steeper and close to Burgers'; the flow is mostly solenoidal and statistically rigorously consistent with fully developed, homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. Small scale anisotropy appears due to numerical artifact. Towards the virial region, the flow becomes compressional, the structure functions flatter and modest genuine anisotropy appear. In comparison, mesh adaptivity based on Lagrangian refinement and the same finest resolution, leads to lack of turbulent power on small scale and excess thereof on large scales, and unreliable density weighted structure functions.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2013

Relaxation of Blazar Induced Pair Beams in Cosmic Voids

The stability properties of a low density ultra relativistic pair beam produced in the intergalactic medium by multi-TeV gamma-ray photons from blazars are analyzed. The problem is relevant for probes of magnetic field in cosmic voids through gamma-ray observations. In addition, dissipation of such beams could affect considerably the thermal history of the intergalactic medium and structure formation. We use a Monte Carlo method to quantify the properties of the blazar induced electromagnetic shower, in particular the bulk Lorentz factor and the angular spread of the pair beam generated by the shower, as a function of distance from the blazar itself. We then use linear and nonlinear kinetic theory to study the stability of the pair beam against the growth of electrostatic plasma waves, employing the Monte Carlo results for our quantitative estimates. We find that the fastest growing mode, like any perturbation mode with even a very modest component perpendicular to the beam direction, cannot be described in the reactive regime. Due to the effect of non-linear Landau damping, which suppresses the growth of plasma oscillations, the beam relaxation timescale is found significantly longer than the inverse Compton loss time. Finally, density inhomogeneities associated with cosmic structure induce loss of resonance between the beam particles and plasma oscillations, strongly inhibiting their growth. We conclude that relativistic pair beams produced by blazars in the intergalactic medium are stable on timescales long compared to the electromagnetic cascade's. There appears to be little or no effect of pair-beams on the intergalactic medium.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2011

A numerical model of resistive generation of intergalactic magnetic field at cosmic dawn

Miniati and Bell (2011) proposed a mechanism for the generation of magnetic seeds that is based the finite resistivity of the low temperature IGM in the high redshift universe. In this model, cosmic-ray protons generated by the first generation of galaxies, escape into the intergalactic medium carrying an electric current that induces return currents, $j_t$, and associated electric fields, $\vec E=η\vec j_t$ there. Because the resistivity, $η$, depends on the IGM temperature, which is highly inhomogeneous due to adiabatic contraction and shocks produced by structure formation, a non-vanishing curl of the electric field exists which sustains the growth of magnetic field. In this contribution we have developed an approximate numerical model for this process by implementing the source terms of the resistive mechanism in the cosmological code CHARM. Our numerical estimates substantiate the earlier analysis in Miniati and Bell (2011) which found magnetic seeds between 10$^{-18}$ and 10$^{-16}$ Gauss throughout cosmic space at redshift z~6, consistent with conservative estimates of magnetic fields in voids at z~0 from recent gamma-ray experiments.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2011

Cosmic ray transport in galaxy clusters: implications for radio halos and gamma-rays

Observations of giant radio halos provide unambiguous evidence for the existence of cosmic ray (CR) electrons and magnetic fields in galaxy clusters. The physical mechanism generating radio halos is still heavily debated. We critically discuss the proposed models for the radio halo emission and highlight the weaknesses underlying each explanation. We present an idea how the interplay of CR propagation and turbulent advection selects a bimodal spatial CR distribution that is characteristic for the dynamical state of a cluster. As a result, strongly turbulent, merging clusters should have a more centrally concentrated CR energy density profile with respect to relaxed ones with very subsonic turbulence. This translates into a bimodality of the expected diffuse radio and gamma ray emission of clusters. Thus, the observed bimodality of cluster radio halos appears to be a natural consequence of the interplay of CR transport processes, independent of the model of radio halo formation, be it hadronic interactions of CR protons or re-acceleration of low-energy CR electrons.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2011

Primordial magnetic field constraints from the end of reionization

Primordial magnetic fields generated in the early universe are subject of considerable investigation, and observational limits on their strength are required to constrain the theory. Due to their impact on the reionization process, the strength of primordial fields can be limited using the latest data on reionization and the observed UV-luminosity function of high-redshift galaxies. Given the steep faint-end slope of the luminosity function, faint galaxies contribute substantial ionizing photons, and the low-luminosity cutoff has an impact on the total budget thereof. Magnetic pressure from primordial fields affects such cutoff by preventing collapse in halos with mass below 10^{10} M_solar (B_0 / 3 nG)^3, with B_0 the co-moving field strength. In this letter, the implications of these effects are consistently incorporated in a simplified model for reionization, and the uncertainties due to the cosmological parameters, the reionization parameters and the observed UV luminosity function are addressed. We show that the observed ionization degree at z\sim7 leads to the strongest upper limit of B_0\lsim 2-3nG. Stronger limits could follow from measurements of high ionization degree at z>7.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2011

Constrained-Transport Magnetohydrodynamics with Adaptive-Mesh-Refinement in CHARM

We present the implementation of a three-dimensional, second order accurate Godunov-type algorithm for magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD), in the adaptive-mesh-refinement (AMR) cosmological code {\tt CHARM}. The algorithm is based on the full 12-solve spatially unsplit Corner-Transport-Upwind (CTU) scheme. The fluid quantities are cell-centered and are updated using the Piecewise-Parabolic-Method (PPM), while the magnetic field variables are face-centered and are evolved through application of the Stokes theorem on cell edges via a Constrained-Transport (CT) method. The multidimensional MHD source terms required in the predictor step for high-order accuracy are applied in a simplified form which reduces their complexity in three dimensions without loss of accuracy or robustness. The algorithm is implemented on an AMR framework which requires specific synchronization steps across refinement levels. These include face-centered restriction and prolongation operations and a {\it reflux-curl} operation, which maintains a solenoidal magnetic field across refinement boundaries. The code is tested against a large suite of test problems, including convergence tests in smooth flows, shock-tube tests, classical two- and three-dimensional MHD tests, a three-dimensional shock-cloud interaction problem and the formation of a cluster of galaxies in a fully cosmological context. The magnetic field divergence is shown to remain negligible throughout.

astro-ph.IM↗
arXiv2011

Inverse Compton gamma-rays from Galactic dark matter annihilation: Anisotropy signatures

High energy electrons and positrons from annihilating dark matter can imprint unique angular anisotropies on the diffuse gamma-ray flux by inverse Compton scattering off the interstellar radiation field. We develop a numerical tool to compute gamma-ray emission from such electrons and positrons produced in the smooth host halo and in substructure halos with masses down to 10^(-6)M_sun. We show that the angular power spectrum from inverse Compton scattering is exponentially suppressed below an angular scale determined by the diffusion length of electrons and positrons. We also find that the total flux and the shape of the angular power spectrum depends sensitively on the spatial distribution of subhalos in the Milky Way. Finally, the contribution from the smooth host halo component to the gamma-ray mean intensity is negligibly small compared to subhalos.

astro-ph.HE↗