Project Description
Diffusive Shock Acceleration (DSA) is one of the most promising cosmic-ray (CR) acceleration processes. It is expected to be at work in a number of astrophysical environments, e.g., supernova remnants (SNRs), galaxy clusters, and superbubbles, and provides an elegant way to accelerate CRs to spectra similar to what is observed. There are, however, still open questions regarding several aspects of DSA, such as the link between global drivers and wave/particle interactions, the role of turbulence, and the spectral slopes and energy cut-offs that can be reached.F9 is a new project in Phase 2. It builds on developments of Phase 1 in projects F1 and A3, in particular the framework for stochastic differential equations in CRPropa, and uses supernova remnants as laboratories for DSA.
In this project, we will combine kinetic-scale simulations – semi-implicit Particle In Cell (PIC) and two-fluid 10-moment – with macroscopic simulations based on stochastic differential equations (SDEs), to address the following questions:
- How efficiently are electrons injected into DSA?
- What is the role of the magnetic field structure on CR transport and acceleration at the shock?
- What determines diffusive transport?
