Search

We argue that the North Polar Spur (NPS) and many less prominent structures are formed by gaseous metal-rich plumes associated with star-forming regions (SFRs). The SFRs located at the tangent to the 3-5 kpc rings might be particularly relevant to NPS. A multi-temperature mixture of gaseous components and cosmic rays rises above the Galactic disk under the action of their initial momentum and buoyancy. Eventually, the plume velocity becomes equal to that of the ambient gas, which rotates with different angular speed than the stars in the disk. As a result, the plumes acquire characteristic bent shapes. An ad hoc model of plumes' trajectories shows an interesting resemblance to the morphology of structures seen in the radio continuum and X-rays., Comment: 6 pages + Appendix, submitted to A&A

We show here that highly polarized X-ray synchrotron radiation from young supernova remnants (SNRs) can be modeled within the framework of diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) and nonlinear magnetic turbulence generation.Cosmic ray acceleration by SNR shocks to very high energies requires efficient magnetic turbulence amplification in the shock precursor.As the strong turbulence generated by Bell's instability far upstream from the viscous subshock convects through the subshock, nonlinear dynamical effects on the compressible fluctuations produce a downstream layer filled with strong anisotropic turbulence with predominantly radial magnetic fields.The synchrotron radiation from shock accelerated electrons in the turbulent downstream layer has a high degree of polarization shown to be consistent with recent observations of young SNRs by IXPE.In the case of Tycho's SNR, the measured X-ray radiation constrains the thickness of the energy containing interval and the amplitude of cosmic ray driven magnetic turbulence, as well as the maximal energy of accelerated protons.The preferential direction of the X-ray polarization depends sensitively on the SNR shock velocity and the ambient density.A unique feature of our model is the sensitive dependence of the degree and direction of X-ray polarization on the spatial overlap between regions of amplified magnetic turbulence and TeV electron populations.While this overlap occurs on scales orders of magnitude below the resolution of IXPE,its polarization measurement allows testing of turbulent plasma processes on unprecedented scales.The mechanism of formation of highly polarized X-ray synchrotron radiation in fast shocks with high level of anisotropic turbulent magnetic field preferentially directed along the shock normal may be applied to other systems like shocks produced by black hole jets., Comment: Physical Review in print, 14 pages, 6 figures

Fast blue optical transients (FBOTs) represent a new class of highly energetic sources observed from radio to X-rays. High luminosity, light curves and spectra of the sources can be understood if they are associated with supernova-like or tidal disruption events. Radio observations of the transient sources revealed a mildly relativistic expansion of some of the remnants. The high power and mildly relativistic shock velocities are providing favorable conditions for very high energy particle acceleration. In this paper we present a model of particle acceleration in mildly relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) outflow of the transient source. To construct the non-thermal radiation and cosmic ray spectra in a broad range of energies we combined the microscopic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of electron and proton injection at mildly relativistic shock with Monte Carlo technique for high energy particle transport and acceleration. The kinetic PIC simulations provided the energy partition parameter $\epsilon_{e}$ used to fit the observed non-thermal radio emission using the magnetic field amplification mechanisms modelled with Monte Carlo simulations. The model allowed to describe the radio-spectrum of CSS161010 and it's X-ray luminosity. The high X-ray luminosity of AT2018 and AT2020mrf detected during the first weeks can be connected to the jet interaction with the stellar companion in a binary system. The model predicts that FBOTs can accelerate cosmic rays to energies above 10 PeV with a possible upper limit of maximum energy of 100 PeV. With the expected event rate of FBOTs they can contribute to the very high energy cosmic rays population in galaxies., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures

The Simeis~147 nebula (S147), particularly well known for a spectacular net of ${\rm H}_\alpha$-emitting filaments, is often considered one of the largest and oldest known supernova remnants in the Milky Way. Here, and in a companion paper, we present studies of X-ray emission from the S147 nebula using the data of SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey observations. In this paper, we argue that many inferred properties of the X-ray emitting gas are broadly consistent with a scenario of the supernova explosion in a low-density cavity, e.g. a wind-blown-bubble. This scenario assumes that a $\sim 20\,{\rm M_\odot}$ progenitor star has had small velocity with respect to the ambient ISM, so it stayed close to the center of a dense shell created during its Main Sequence evolution till the moment of the core-collapse explosion. The ejecta first propagate through the low-density cavity until they collide with the dense shell, and only then the reverse shock goes deeper into the ejecta and powers the observed X-ray emission of the nebula. The part of the remnant inside the dense shell remains non-radiative till now and, plausibly, in a state with $T_e

W50 is a radio nebula around hyper-accreting Galactic microquasar SS~433. Here we focus on one peculiar feature of W50 - a pair of so-called "extended X-ray jets" (EXJs). These "jets" have a size of $\sim20\, {\rm pc}$, a sharp inner boundary, and their spectra are well represented by a featureless X-ray continuum. We argue that EXJ could be an outcome of a powerful {\it anisotropic} wind produced by a super-critical accretion disk. In the simplest version of this model, the wind itself consists of two components. The first component is a nearly isotropic outflow that subtends most of the solid angle as seen from the compact source and creates the quasi-spherical part of the W50 nebula. The second component is a more collimated wind aligned with the binary system rotation axis (polar wind). The isotropic outflow passes through the termination shock and its increased thermal pressure creates a sequence of recollimation shocks in the polar wind, giving it the appearance of an extended X-ray structure. In this model, the EXJ continuum spectrum is due to synchrotron emission of electrons accelerated at the shocks arising in the polar wind. At variance with many other studies, in this model, the EXJ structures are not directly related to the highly collimated and precessing $0.26\;\!c$ baryonic jets. Instead, the EXJ and the W50's ears are produced by the part of the wind with an Eddington-level kinetic luminosity confined to a half-opening angle of 5-10 degrees, which is not necessarily a recollimated version of the $0.26\;\!c$ jets., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A

Current generation of ground based gamma-ray telescopes observed dozens of sources of photons above 100 TeV. Supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae, young stellar clusters and superbubbles are considered as possible sites of PeV-regime particles producing the radiation. Another possible source of PeV particles could be gamma-ray binary systems. In these systems, a strong relativistic outflow from a compact object (neutron star or black hole) collides with the dense wind from a massive companion early-type star. Gamma-ray binaries are observed from radio to high energy gamma-rays as luminous non-thermal sources. Apart from acceleration of very high energy leptons producing most of the non-thermal radiation, these systems may also efficiently accelerate protons. We present here the results of numerical simulation of the PeV-regime proton acceleration in gamma-ray binaries. The simulation is based on relativistic MHD modeling of local flows of magnetized plasma in the region of interaction of two colliding winds. We then inject 0.1 PeV protons into the system and directly follow their trajectories to demonstrate that they are accelerated to energies above PeV. High magnetization of the wind of the young massive star providing a Gauss range field in the winds interaction region is of paramount importance for the acceleration of protons above PeV. The maximum energies of protons accelerated by colliding winds in gamma ray binaries can significantly exceed the energy of the pulsar potential's drop, which limits from above the energy of particles accelerated by an isolated pulsar., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, Adv. Space Res., in print

Young massive stars in compact stellar clusters could end their evolution as core-collapse supernovae a few million years after the cluster was built. The blast wave of a supernova propagates through the inner cluster region with multiple stellar winds of young luminous stars. We present the results of 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the plasma flows produced by a supernova event inside a cluster with a population of massive stars similar to that in Westerlund 1. We followed its evolution over a few thousand years (i.e. a few shock crossing times). The plasma temperature, density and magnetic field, which are highly disturbed by supernova event, relax to values close to the initial over the studied period. The relaxation time of a cluster is a few thousand years, which is a sizeable fraction of the period between the successive supernova events for a massive cluster of a few million years age. The spectra of the cluster diffuse X-ray emission simulated here should be representative for the galactic and extragalactic young massive clusters. The resultant magnetic fields are highly intermittent, so we derived the volume filling factors for a set of magnetic field ranges. Highly amplified magnetic fields of magnitude well above 100 $\mu$G fill in a few per cent of the cluster volume, but still dominate the magnetic energy. The structure of the magnetic fields and high velocity plasma flows with shocks in the system are favorable for both proton and electron acceleration to energies well above TeV., Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures; accepted to MNRAS

We directly compare hybrid kinetic simulations and in situ observations of a high Mach number high-$\beta$ shock in the Solar wind. We launch virtual probes to demonstrate that the model quantitatively reproduces the observations. The observed wave properties are caused by the ion Weibel instability in the shock foot. Parameters of reflected ions in the shock foot are extracted from simulations, and their coordinate dependencies are linearly approximated. These approximations could be used in analytical models. Due to strong magnetic variations at ramp the reflected ions density can be locally very high (nearly that of the incoming flow), which makes favourable conditions for the instability., Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures

We present the results of current observations of the young compact cluster of massive stars Westerlund 2 with the Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC telescope aboard the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory which we analysed together with the archival Chandra data. In general, Westerlund 2 was detected over the whole electromagnetic spectrum including high-energy gamma rays, which revealed a cosmic ray acceleration in this object to the energies up to tens of TeV. The detection of Westerlund 2 with ART-XC allowed us to perform a joint spectral analysis together with the high resolution Chandra observations of the diffuse emission from a few selected regions in the vicinity of the Westerlund 2 core in the 0.4 - 20 keV range. To fit the Westerlund 2 X-ray spectrum above a few keV one needs either a non-thermal power-law emission component, or a hot plasma with temperatures $\sim$ 5 keV. Our magnetohydrodynamic modeling of the plasma flows in Westerlund 2 shows substantially lower electron temperatures in the system and thus the presence of the non-thermal component is certainly preferable. A kinetic model of the particle acceleration demonstrated that the non-thermal component may originate from the synchrotron radiation of multi-TeV electrons and positrons produced in Westerlund 2 in accordance with the TeV photons detection from the source., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures

Young massive star clusters inhabit regions of star formation and play an essential role in the galactic evolution. They are sources of both thermal and non-thermal radiation, and they are effective cosmic ray accelerators. We present the 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modeling of the plasma flows in a young compact cluster at the evolutionary stage comprising multiple interacting supersonic winds of massive OB and WR stars. The modeling allows studying the partitioning of the mechanical energy injected by the winds between the bulk motions, thermal heating and magnetic fields. Cluster-scale magnetic fields reaching the magnitudes of $\sim$ 300 $\mu$G show the filamentary structures spreading throughout the cluster core. The filaments with the high magnetic fields are produced by the Axford-Cranfill type effect in the downstream of the wind termination shocks, which is amplified by a compression of the fields with the hot plasma thermal pressure in the central part of the cluster core. The hot ($\sim$ a few keV) plasma is heated at the termination shocks of the stellar winds and compressed in the colliding postshock flows. We also discuss a possible role of the thermal conduction effects on the plasma flow, analyse temperature maps in the cluster core and the diffuse thermal X-ray emission spectra. The presence of high cluster-scale magnetic fields supports the possibility of high-energy cosmic ray acceleration in clusters at the given evolutionary stage., Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present high-resolution, high-sensitivity upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope observations of the Coma cluster (A1656) at 250-500 MHz and 550-850 MHz. At 250-500 MHz, 135 sources have extensions $>$ 0.45 arcmin (with peak-to-local-noise ratio $> 4$). Of these, 24 sources are associated with Coma-member galaxies. In addition, we supplement this sample of 24 galaxies with 20 ram pressure stripped galaxies from Chen et al. (2020, eight are included in the original extended radio source sample) and an additional five are detected and extended. We present radio morphologies, radio spectra, spectral index maps, and equipartition properties for these two samples. In general, we find the equipartition properties lie within a narrow range (e.g., $P_{\rm min}$ = 1-3 dynes cm$^{-2}$). Only NGC 4874, one of the two brightest central Coma cluster galaxies, has a central energy density and pressure about five times higher and a radio source age about 50 % lower than that of the other Coma galaxies. We find a diffuse tail of radio emission trailing the dominant galaxy of the merging NGC 4839 group that coincides with the "slingshot" tail, seen in X-rays. The southwestern radio relic, B1253$+$275, has a large extent $\approx$ 32$^\prime$ $\times$ 10$^\prime$ ($\simeq$ 1.08 $\times$ 0.34 Mpc$^2$). For NGC 4789, whose long radio tails merge into the relic and may be a source of its relativistic seed electrons, and we find a transverse radio spectral gradient, a steepening from southwest to northeast across the width of the radio source. Finally, radio morphologies of the extended and RPS samples suggest that these galaxies are on their first infall into Coma on (predominantly) radial orbits., Comment: 35 pages (includes Appendices), 15 figures (includes 2 figures in Appendix, some Figures are of lower quality), 6 tables (includes 1 table in Appendix), accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

We report the discovery of a candidate X-ray supernova remnant SRGe J003602.3+605421=G121.1-1.9 in the course of \textit{SRG}/eROSITA all-sky survey. The object is located at (l,b)=(121.1$^\circ$,-1.9$^\circ$), is $\approx36$ arcmin in angular size and has a nearly circular shape. Clear variations in spectral shape of the X-ray emission across the object are detected, with the emission from the inner (within 9') and outer (9'-18') parts dominated by iron and oxygen/neon lines, respectively. The non-equilibrium plasma emission model is capable of describing the spectrum of the outer part with the initial gas temperature 0.1 keV, final temperature 0.5 keV and the ionization age $\sim 2\times10^{10}$ cm$^{-3}$ s. The observed spectrum of the inner region is more complicated (plausibly due to the contribution of the outer shell) and requires substantial overabundance of iron for all models we have tried. The derived X-ray absorption equals to $(4-6)\times10^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$, locating the object at the distance beyond 1.5 kpc, and implying its age $\sim(5-30)\times1000$ yrs. No bright radio, infrared, H$_\alpha$ or gamma-ray counterpart of this object have been found in the publicly-available archival data. A model invoking a canonical $10^{51}$ erg explosion (either SN Ia or core collapse) in the hot and tenuous medium in the outer region of the Galaxy $\sim$9 kpc away might explain the bulk of the observed features. This scenario can be tested with future deep X-ray and radio observations., Comment: 20 pages, 21 figures, version accepted to MNRAS

This is the second paper in a series of studies of the Coma cluster using the SRG/eROSITA X-ray data obtained during the calibration and performance verification phase of the mission. Here, we focus on the region adjacent to the radio source 1253+275 (radio relic, RR, hereafter). We show that the X-ray surface brightness exhibits its steepest gradient at $\sim 79'$ ($\sim 2.2\,{\rm Mpc}\approx R_{200c}$), which is almost co-spatial to the outer edge of the RR. As in the case of several other relics, the Mach number of the shock derived from the X-ray surface brightness profile ($M_X\approx 1.9$) appears to be lower than needed to explain the slope of the integrated radio spectrum in the diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) model ($M_R\approx 3.5$) if the magnetic field is uniform and the radiative losses are fast. However, the shock geometry is plausibly much more complicated than a spherical wedge centered on the cluster, given the non-trivial correlation between radio, X-ray, and SZ images. While the complicated shock geometry alone might cause a negative bias in $M_X$, we speculate on a few other possibilities that may affect the $M_X$-$M_R$ relation, including the shock substructure that might be modified by the presence of non-thermal filaments stretching across the shock and the propagation of relativistic electrons along the non-thermal filaments with a strong magnetic field. We also discuss the "history" of the radio galaxy NGC4789, which is located ahead of the relic in the context of the Coma-NGC4839 merger scenario., Comment: Replaced with the accepted version

OB-associations and superbubbles being energetically essential galactic powerhouses are likely to be the important acceleration sites of galactic cosmic rays (CRs). The emission profile of gamma-ray sources related to superbubbles and stellar clusters indicates on continuous particle acceleration by winds of massive stars. One of the most luminous galactic gamma-ray sources is Cygnus Cocoon superbubble, observed by multiple instruments, such as Fermi-LAT, ARGO, and, recently, HAWC. We discuss a model of particle acceleration and transport in a superbubble to explain GeV-TeV gamma-ray spectrum of Cygnus Cocoon, which has a break at the energy of about 1 TeV. It is shown that the gamma rays produced by hadronic interactions of high-energy protons accelerated by an ensemble of shocks from winds of massive stars and supernovae in the Cygnus Cocoon can explain the observations. The proton spectral shape at the highest energies depends on the MHD-fluctuation spectrum in the Cocoon. The viable solutions for Cygnus Cocoon may be applied to some other associations showing similar behaviour. We briefly discuss the similarity and differences of particle acceleration processes in extended superbubbles and compact clusters of young massive stars as represented by Westerlund 1 and 2 gamma-ray sources., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, Advances in Space Research, published online

A supernova remnant (SNR) candidate SRGe~J0023+3625 = G116.6-26.1 was recently discovered in the \textit{SRG}/eROSITA all-sky X-ray survey. This large ($\sim 4$ deg in diameter) SNR candidate lacks prominent counterparts in other bands. Here we report detection of radio emission from G116.6-26.1 in the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTTS-DR2). Radio images show a shell-like structure coincident with the X-ray boundary of the SNR. The measured surface brightness of radio emission from this SNR is very low. Extrapolation of the observed surface brightness to 1~GHz places G116.6-26.1 well below other objects in the $\Sigma-D$ diagram. We argue that the detected radio flux might be consistent with the minimal level expected in the van der Laan adiabatic compression model, provided that the volume emissivity of the halo gas in the LOFAR band is $\sim 10^{-42}\,{\rm Wm^{-3}Hz^{-1} sr^{-1}}$. If true, this SNR can be considered as a prototypical example of an evolved SNR in the Milky Way halo. In the X-ray and radio bands, such SNRs can be used as probes of thermal and non-thermal components constituting the Milky Way halo., Comment: 6 pages, submitted to MNRAS Letters

The high-energy radiation from short period binaries containing a massive star with a compact relativistic companion was detected from radio to TeV gamma rays. We show here that PeV regime protons can be efficiently accelerated in the regions of collision of relativistic outflows of a compact object with stellar winds in these systems. The accelerated proton spectra in the presented Monte Carlo model have an upturn in the PeV regime and can provide very hard spectra of sub-PeV photons and neutrinos by photo-meson processes in the stellar radiation field. Recent report of a possible sub-PeV gamma-ray flare in coincidence with a high-energy neutrino can be understood in the frame of this model. The gamma-ray binaries may contribute substantially to the Galactic component of the detected high-energy neutrino flux., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, ApJL, in press

Aims. We study the X-ray emission of the galactic supernova remnant (SNR) G18.95-1.1 with the eROSITA telescope on board the Spectrum Rentgen Gamma (SRG) orbital observatory. In addition to the pulsar wind nebula that was previously identified and examined by ASCA and Chandra, we study the X-ray spectra of the bright SNR ridge, which is resolved into a few bright clumps. Methods. The wide field of view and the large collecting area in the 0.2-2.3 keV energy range of SRG/eROSITA allowed us to perform spatially resolved spectroscopy of G18.95-1.1. Results. The X-ray ridge of G18.95-1.1 is asymmetric, indicating either supernova ejecta asymmetry or their interaction with a cloud. The X-ray dim northern regions outside the pulsar wind nebula can be described by a thin thermal plasma emission with a temperature ~0.3 keV and a solar composition. The X-ray spectra of a few bright clumps located along the southern ridge may be satisfactorily approximated by a single thermal component of the Si-rich ejecta at the collisional ionization equilibrium with a temperature of about 0.3 keV. The bright ridge can be alternatively fit with a single component that is not dominated by equilibrium ejecta with T ~ 0.6 keV. The high ratio of the derived Si/O abundances indicates that the ejecta originated in deep layers of the progenitor star. The plasma composition of a southern Si-rich clump and the bright ridge are similar to what was earlier found in the Vela shrapnel A and G.

The existence of macroscopic objects from antimatter (antistars) is envisaged in some models of baryogenesis. Searches for antistars has been usually carried out in gamma-rays through hadronic annihilation of matter. In astrophysically plausible cases of the interaction of neutral atmospheres or winds from antistars with ionized interstellar gas, the hadronic annihilation will be preceded by the formation of excited $p\bar p$ and He$\bar p$ atoms. These atoms rapidly cascade down to low levels prior to annihilation giving rise to a series of narrow lines which can be associated with the hadronic annihilation gamma-ray emission. The most significant are L (3p-2p) 1.73 keV line (yield more than 90\%) from $p\bar p$ atoms, and M (4-3) 4.86 keV (yield $\sim 60\% $) and L (3-2) 11.13 keV (yield about 25\%) lines from $^4$He$\bar p$ atoms. These lines can be probed in dedicated observations by forthcoming sensitive X-ray spectroscopic missions XRISM, \textit{Athena, \textit{Lynx}and in wide-field X-ray surveys like SRG/\textit{eROSITA} all-sky survey., Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables. Submitted to JCAP. Revised version, typos corrected

In the first months after the launch in July 2019, eROSITA onboard Spektr-RG (SRG) performed long-exposure observations in the regions around SN 1987A and SNR N132D in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We analyse the distribution and the spectrum of the diffuse X-ray emission in the observed fields to determine the physical properties of the hot phase of the interstellar medium (ISM). The eROSITA data are complemented by newly derived column density maps for the Milky Way and the LMC, 888 MHz radio continuum map from the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), and optical images of the Magellanic Cloud Emission Line Survey (MCELS). We detect significant emission from thermal plasma with kT=0.2 keV in all the regions. There is also an additional higher-temperature emission component from a plasma with kT = 0.7 keV. In addition, non-thermal X-ray emission is significantly detected in the superbubble 30 Dor C. The absorbing column density NH in the LMC derived from the analysis of the X-ray spectra taken with eROSITA is consistent with the NH obtained from the emission of the cold medium over the entire area. Neon abundance is enhanced in the regions in and around 30 Dor and SN 1987A, indicating that the ISM has been chemically enriched by the young stellar population. Emission from the stellar cluster RMC 136 and the Wolf-Rayet stars RMC 139 and RMC 140 is best modelled with a high-temperature (kT>1 keV) non-equilibrium ionisation plasma emission and a non-thermal component with a photon index of {\Gamma} =1.3. In addition, the optical SNR candidate J0529-7004 is also detected with eROSITA and we thus confirm the source as an SNR., Comment: Submitted to A&A for the Special Issue: The Early Data Release of eROSITA and Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC on the SRG Mission

We report a discovery of a new X-ray-selected supernova remnant (SNR) candidate SRGe~J0023+3625 = G116.6-26.1 found in the SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey. The source features a large angular extent ($\sim 4$ deg in diameter), nearly circular shape and X-ray spectrum dominated by emission lines of helium- and hydrogen-like oxygen. It lacks bright counterparts of similar extent at other wavelengths which could be unequivocally associated with it. Given the relatively high Galactic latitude of the source, $b\approx-26$ deg, we interpret these observational properties as an indication of the off-disk location of this SNR candidate. Namely, we propose that this object originated from a Type Ia supernova which exploded some 40 000 yr ago in the low density ($\sim 10^{-3}\,{\rm cm^{-3}}$) and hot ($\sim (1-2)\times10^6\,{\rm K}$) gas of the Milky Way halo at a distance of $\sim 3\,{\rm kpc}$ from the Sun. The low density of the halo gas implies that the cooling and collisional ionization equilibrium (CEI) timescales downstream of the forward shock are much longer than the age of the SNR. This results in a relatively soft spectrum, reflecting pre-shock ionization state of the gas, and strong boost in the plasma emissivity (compared to CEI) due to enhanced collisional excitation through the increased electron temperature. If confirmed, such a rare object would provide us with a unique "in situ" probe of physical conditions (density, temperature and metallicity) near the interface between the Milky Way's disk and the halo., Comment: MNRAS, accepted

Solar wind plasma at the Earth's orbit carries transient magnetic field structures including discontinuities. Their interaction with the Earth's bow shock can significantly alter discontinuity configuration and stability. We investigate such an interaction for the most widespread type of solar wind discontinuities - rotational discontinuities (RDs). We use a set of in situ multispacecraft observations and perform kinetic hybrid simulations. We focus on the RD current density amplification that may lead to magnetic reconnection. We show that the amplification can be as high as two orders of magnitude and is mainly governed by three processes: the transverse magnetic field compression, global thinning of RD, and interaction of RD with low-frequency electromagnetic waves in the magnetosheath, downstream of the bow shock. The first factor is found to substantially exceed simple hydrodynamic predictions in most observed cases, the second effect has a rather moderate impact, while the third causes strong oscillations of the current density. We show that the presence of accelerated particles in the bow shock precursor highly boosts the current density amplification, making the postshock magnetic reconnection more probable. The pool of accelerated particles strongly affects the interaction of RDs with the Earth's bow shock, as it is demonstrated by observational data analysis and hybrid code simulations. Thus, shocks should be distinguished not by the inclination angle, but rather by the presence of foreshocks populated with shock reflected particles. Plasma processes in the RD-shock interaction affect magnetic structures and turbulence in the Earth's magnetosphere and may have implications for the processes in astrophysics.

Aims: LS 5039 is an enigmatic high-mass gamma-ray binary which hosts a powerful O6.5V companion, but the nature of the compact object is still to be established using multi-wavelength observations. Methods: We analyzed phase-resolved multi-instrument spectra of nonthermal emission from LS 5039 in order to produce reliable spectral models, which can be further employed to select between various scenarios and theoretical models of the binary. Results: The combined phase-resolved hard X-ray and MeV-range gamma-ray spectra obtained with XMM-Newton, Suzaku, NuSTAR, INTEGRAL, and COMPTEL indicate a meaningful spectral hardening above 50~keV. The spectral break observed in both major phases of the binary may indicate the presence of a hardening in the spectrum of accelerated leptons which could originate from the interaction of wind from the O6.5V companion star with the relativistic outflow from a yet unidentified compact object., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A 13 July 2021, 7 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables

This is the first paper in a series of studies of the Coma cluster using the SRG/eROSITA X-ray data obtained in course of the Calibration and Performance Verification observations. The data cover $\sim3^\circ\times 3^\circ$ area around the cluster with a typical exposure time of more than 20 ks. The stability of the instrumental background and operation of the SRG Observatory in the scanning mode provided us with an excellent data set for studies of the diffuse emission up to a distance of $\sim 1.5R_{200}$ from the Coma center. In this study, we discuss the rich morphology revealed by the X-ray observations (also in combination with the SZ data) and argue that the most salient features can be naturally explained by a recent (on-going) merger with the NGC 4839 group. In particular, we identify a faint X-ray bridge connecting the group with the cluster, which is convincing proof that NGC 4839 has already crossed the main cluster. The gas in the Coma core went through two shocks, first through the shock driven by NGC 4839 during its first passage through the cluster some Gyr ago, and, more recently, through the "mini-accretion shock" associated with the gas settling back to quasi-hydrostatic equilibrium in the core. After passing through the primary shock, the gas should spend much of the time in a rarefaction region, where radiative losses of electrons are small, until the gas is compressed again by the mini-accretion shock. Unlike "runway" merger shocks, the mini-accretion shock does not feature a rarefaction region downstream and, therefore, the radio emission can survive longer. Such a two-stage process might explain the formation of the radio halo in the Coma cluster., Comment: accepted for publication in A&A

Observations of young supernova remnants (SNRs) in X-rays and gamma-rays have provided conclusive evidence for particle acceleration to at least TeV energies. Analysis of high spatial resolution X-ray maps of young SNRs has indicated that the particle acceleration process is accompanied by strong non-adiabatic amplification of magnetic fields. If Fermi acceleration is the mechanism producing the energetic cosmic rays (CRs), the amplified magnetic field must be turbulent and CR-driven instabilities are among the most probable mechanisms for converting the shock ram pressure into the magnetic turbulence. The development and evolution of strong magnetic turbulence in the collisionless plasmas forming SNR shells are complicated phenomena which include the amplification of magnetic modes, anisotropic mode transformations at shocks, as well as the nonlinear physics of turbulent cascades. Polarized X-ray synchrotron radiation from ultra-relativistic electrons accelerated in the SNR shock is produced in a thin layer immediately behind the shock and is not subject to the Faraday depolarization effect. These factors open possibilities to study some properties of magnetic turbulence and here we present polarized X-ray synchrotron maps of SNR shells assuming different models of magnetic turbulence cascades. It is shown that different models of the anisotropic turbulence can be distinguished by measuring the predominant polarization angle direction. We discuss the detection of these features in Tycho's SNR with the coming generation of X-ray polarimeters such as the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE)., Comment: Accepted in The Astrophysical Journal, July 2020. (11 pages, 9 figures)

The giant gamma-ray flares of the Crab nebula discovered by AGILE and Fermi observatories came as a surprise and have challenged the existing models of pulsar wind nebulae. We have carried out an analysis of 10.5 years of Fermi-LAT observations (Aug 2008 -- Feb 2019) and investigated variability of the Crab nebula in the 100-300 MeV range. Besides the flares, we found several month long depressions of the gamma-ray flux and identified several cases of sharp flux drops, where during one week the flux decreased by an order of magnitude with respect to its average value. No statistically significant variations of the nebula flux in the $E>$10 GeV range were found in the data. We discuss possible implications of the observed gamma-ray flux depressions on the model of synchrotron emission of the Crab nebula., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, matches the published version

Non-thermal particles and high-energy radiation can play a role in the dynamical processes in star-forming regions and provide an important piece of the multiwavelength observational picture of their structure and components. Powerful stellar winds and supernovae in compact clusters of massive stars and OB associations are known to be favourable sites of high-energy particle acceleration and sources of non-thermal radiation and neutrinos. Namely, young massive stellar clusters are likely sources of the PeV (petaelectronvolt) regime cosmic rays (CRs). They can also be responsible for the cosmic ray composition, e.g., 22Ne/20Ne anomalous isotopic ratio in CRs. Efficient particle acceleration can be accompanied by super-adiabatic amplification of the fluctuating magnetic fields in the systems converting a part of kinetic power of the winds and supernovae into the magnetic energy through the CR-driven instabilities. The escape and CR propagation in the vicinity of the sources are affected by the non-linear CR feedback. These effects are expected to be important in starburst galaxies, which produce high-energy neutrinos and gamma-rays. We give a brief review of the theoretical models and observational data on high-energy particle acceleration and their radiation in star-forming regions with young stellar population., Comment: 41 pages, Space Science Reviews v.216, id 42, topical collection Star Formation

In recent years, exciting developments have taken place in the identification of the role of cosmic rays in star-forming environments. Observations from radio to infrared wavelengths and theoretical modelling have shown that low-energy cosmic rays (<1 TeV) play a fundamental role in shaping the chemical richness of the interstellar medium, determining the dynamical evolution of molecular clouds. In this review we summarise in a coherent picture the main results obtained by observations and by theoretical models of propagation and generation of cosmic rays, from the smallest scales of protostars and circumstellar discs, to young stellar clusters, up to Galactic and extragalactic scales. We also discuss the new fields that will be explored in the near future thanks to new generation instruments, such as: CTA, for the $\gamma$-ray emission from high-mass protostars; SKA and precursors, for the synchrotron emission at different scales; and ELT/HIRES, JWST, and ARIEL, for the impact of cosmic rays on exoplanetary atmospheres and habitability., Comment: Submitted to Space Science Reviews topical collection Star formation

The results of hybrid simulation of low-beta supercritical quasi-parallel shocks in high metallicity plasma are presented. The structure of upstream and downstream turbulence is addressed and velocities of the corresponding scattering centers are derived. It is shown that independently of their chemical composition the shocks experience self-reformation process. However, the period of self-reformation as well as the wave spectrum is greatly affected by the presence of substantial admixture of weakly charged heavy ions. Also the downstream magnetic field amplification is stronger for the high metallicity case., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, in print

For most elements, the isotopic ratios seen in cosmic rays (CRs) are similar to those in the solar wind. The most important exception to this is $^{22}$Ne/$^{20}$Ne where the CR value is $\sim 5$ times that of the solar wind. According to most recent models of nucleosynthesis, a large amount of $^{22}\mathrm{Ne}$ is generated in Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. In the winds of carbon sequence WR stars, i.e., WC stars, the isotopic ratio $^{22}\mathrm{Ne}$/$^{20}\mathrm{Ne}$ can be much larger than in the solar wind. Here, we consider CRs produced by $^{22}\mathrm{Ne}$-enriched WR winds in compact clusters of young massive stars like Westerlund~1. We assume that efficient CR acceleration in clusters occurs over the WR lifetime in an ensemble of shock waves from multiple massive star winds. We estimate the fraction of all Galactic CRs such sources may produce for a given set of parameters., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in IOP Journal of Physics: Conf. Series

It has been shown that supernova blast waves interacting with winds from massive stars in compact star clusters may be capable of producing cosmic-ray (CR) protons to above $10^{17}$ eV. We give a brief description of the colliding-shock-flows mechanism and look at generalizations of the diffusion of ~ 100 PeV CRs in the turbulent galactic magnetic field present in the galactic disk. We calculate the temporal evolution of the CR anisotropy from a possible distribution of young compact massive star clusters assuming the sources are intermittent on time scales of a few million years, i.e., comparable to their residence time in the Milky Way. Within the confines of our model, we determine the galactic/extra-galactic fraction of high-energy CRs resulting in anisotropies consistent with observed values. We find that galactic star clusters may contribute a substantial fraction of ~ 100 PeV CRs without producing anisotropies above observed limits., Comment: Submitted to Advances in Space Research, 14 pages, 6 figures

Relativistic particle acceleration in collisionless shocks of supernova remnants is accompanied by magnetic field amplification from cosmic ray (CR) driven plasma instabilities. Bell's fast CR-current instability is predicted to produce turbulence with a non-zero mean electric field in the shock precursor. We present a Monte Carlo model of Fermi shock acceleration explicitly taking into account an effective mean upstream electric field. Our model is nonlinear and includes the backreaction effects of efficient Fermi acceleration on the shock structure., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (in press, 2019)

We consider acceleration of leptons up to GeV-TeV energies in the bow shock wind nebula of PSR J0437-4715 and their subsequent diffusion through the interstellar magnetic fields. The leptons accelerated at the pulsar wind termination surface are injected into re-acceleration in colliding shock flows. Modelled spectra of synchrotron emission from the accelerated electrons and positrons are consistent with the far-ultraviolet and X-ray observations of the nebula carried out with the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory. These observations are employed to constrain the absolute fluxes of relativistic leptons, which are escaping from the nebula and eventually reaching the Solar System after energy-dependent diffusion through the local interstellar medium accompanied by synchrotron and Compton losses. It is shown that accelerated leptons from the nebula of PSR J0437-4715 can be responsible both for the enhancement of the positron fraction above a few GeV detected by PAMELA and AMS-02 spectrometers and for the TeV range lepton fluxes observed with H.E.S.S., VERITAS, Fermi, CALET, and DAMPE., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, Astrophysical Journal Letters, in print

Galaxy clusters grow by gas accretion, mostly from mergers of substructures, which release powerful shock waves into cosmic plasmas and convert a fraction of kinetic energy into thermal energy, amplification of magnetic fields and into the acceleration of energetic particles. The modeling of the radio signature of cosmic shocks, combined with the lack of detected gamma-rays from cosmic ray (CR) protons, poses challenges to our understanding of how cosmic rays get accelerated and stored in the intracluster medium. Here we review the injection of CRs by cosmic shocks of different strengths, combining the detailed "microscopic" view of collisionless processes governing the creation of non-thermal distributions of electrons and protons in cluster shocks (based on analytic theory and particle-in-cell simulations), with the "macroscopic" view of the large-scale distribution of cosmic rays, suggested by modern cosmological simulations. We discuss time dependent non-linear kinetic models of particle acceleration by multiple internal shocks with large scale compressible motions of plasma. The models produce soft CR spectra containing a noticeable energy density in the super-thermal protons of energies below a few GeV which are difficult to constrain by Fermi observations. We consider the effect of plasma composition on CR injection and super-thermal particle population in the hot intracluster matter which can be constrained by fine high resolution X-ray spectroscopy of Fe ions., Comment: Space Science Reviews, in print

A second-order accurate divergence-conserving hybrid particle-in-cell code Maximus has been developed for microscopic modeling of collisionless plasmas. The main specifics of the code include a constrained transport algorithm for exact conservation of magnetic field divergence, a Boris-type particle pusher, a weighted particle momentum deposit on the cells of the 3D spatial grid, an ability to model multispecies plasmas and an adaptive time step. The code is efficiently parallelized for running on supercomputers by means of the message passing interface (MPI) technology; an analysis of parallelization efficiency and overall resource intensity is presented. A Maximus simulation of the shocked flow in the Solar wind is shown to agree well with the observations of the Ion Release Module (IRM) aboard the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers interplanetary mission., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, accepted to the conference series "Communications in Computer and Information Science". The supplementary video is available here http://www.ioffe.ru/HEA/vol/energetic_particles_phaseE_H_white_He_green.gif

We give a brief review of the origin and acceleration of cosmic rays (CRs), emphasizing the production of CRs at different stages of supernova evolution by the first-order Fermi shock acceleration mechanism. We suggest that supernovae with trans-relativistic outflows, despite being rather rare, may accelerate CRs to energies above 10$^{18}$ eV over the first year of their evolution. Supernovae in young compact clusters of massive stars, and interaction powered superluminous supernovae, may accelerate CRs well above the PeV regime. We discuss the acceleration of the bulk of the galactic CRs in isolated supernova remnants and re-acceleration of escaped CRs by the multiple shocks present in superbubbles produced by associations of OB stars. The effects of magnetic field amplification by CR driven instabilities, as well as superdiffusive CR transport, are discussed for nonthermal radiation produced by nonlinear shocks of all speeds including trans-relativistic ones., Comment: Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews January 2018

We discuss a specific population of galactic PeVatrons which may be the main source of the galactic cosmic-ray (CR) component well above PeV energies. Supernovae in compact clusters of massive stars are proposed as powerful sources of CRs, neutrinos, and gamma-ray emission. Numerical simulations of non-linear Fermi acceleration at converging shock flows have revealed that these accelerators can provide very hard spectra of protons up to $10^{16}-10^{17}$ eV which is well above the "knee" in the all-particle CR spectrum at about $3\times10^{15}$ eV. We suggest that known supernova remnants interacting with stellar winds in the compact clusters of young massive stars Westerlund I and Cl*1806-20 can be associated with the sources of the TeV gamma-ray emission detected by H.E.S.S. and may be responsible for a fraction of the high-energy neutrinos detected with the IceCube observatory. A recent CR composition measurement with the LOFAR array has revealed a light-mass component possibly dominating the all-particle spectrum at energies around $10^{17}$ eV. Such a strong light component (mainly protons and helium) may require specific galactic CR sources such as supernovae interacting with compact clusters of massive stars in addition to isolated supernova remnants., Comment: Accepted for publication in Advances in Space Research May 2017

Pulsars with high spin-down power produce relativistic winds radiating a fraction of the power in the range from radio to gamma-rays in the pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). The rest of the power is dissipated in the interactions of the PWNe with the interstellar medium (ISM). Some of the PWNe are moving relative to the ISM with supersonic speeds producing bow shocks. In this case, the ultrarelativistic particles accelerated at the termination surface of the pulsar wind may be reaccelerated in the converging flow system formed by the outflow from the wind termination shock and the inflow from the bow shock. An outcome of this reacceleration is the creation of particle distributions with hard spectra, such as required to explain the observed synchrotron spectra with photon indices Gamma <~ 1.5. The presence of this hard component is specific to PWNe with bow shocks (BSPWNe). The accelerated particles may end up containing a substantial fraction of the shock ram pressure. For typical ISM and pulsar parameters, the positrons released by these systems are numerous enough to contribute a substantial fraction of the positrons detected as galactic cosmic ray particles above few tens and up to several hundred GeV. The escape of ultrarelativistic particles from a BSPWN and its appearance in the far-UV and X-ray bands is determined by the directions of the interstellar magnetic field, the velocity of the astrosphere and the pulsar rotation axis. In this respect we review the observed appearance and multiwavelength spectra of three different types of BSPWNe: PSR J0437-4715, the Guitar and Lighthouse nebulae, and Vela-like objects. We argue that high resolution imaging of such objects provides unique information on pulsar winds and on the ISM. We discuss the interpretation of imaging observations and estimate the BSPWN contribution to the positron flux observed at the Earth. (ABRIDGED), Comment: 69 pages, 18 figures, Space Science Reviews (in press) 2017

Fast collisionless shocks in cosmic plasmas convert their kinetic energy flow into the hot downstream thermal plasma with a substantial fraction of energy going into a broad spectrum of superthermal charged particles and magnetic fluctuations. The superthermal particles can penetrate into the shock upstream region producing an extended shock precursor. The cold upstream plasma flow is decelerated by the force provided by the superthermal particle pressure gradient. In high Mach number collisionless shocks, efficient particle acceleration is likely coupled with turbulent magnetic field amplification (MFA) generated by the anisotropic distribution of accelerated particles. This anisotropy is determined by the fast particle transport making the problem strongly nonlinear and multi-scale. Here, we present a nonlinear Monte Carlo model of collisionless shock structure with super-diffusive propagation of high-energy Fermi accelerated particles coupled to particle acceleration and MFA which affords a consistent description of strong shocks. A distinctive feature of the Monte Carlo technique is that it includes the full angular anisotropy of the particle distribution at all precursor positions. The model reveals that the super-diffusive transport of energetic particles (i.e., Levy-walk propagation) generates a strong quadruple anisotropy in the precursor particle distribution. The resultant pressure anisotropy of the high-energy particles produces a non-resonant mirror-type instability which amplifies compressible wave modes with wavelengths longer than the gyroradii of the highest energy protons produced by the shock., Comment: Published in Physical Review E, Vol. 95, p. 033207 (2017)

We report on six new Chandra observations of the Geminga pulsar wind nebula (PWN). The PWN consists of three distinct elongated structures - two $\approx 0.2 d_{250}$ pc long lateral tails and a segmented axial tail of $\approx 0.05 d_{250}$ pc length, where $d_{250}=d/(250 {\rm pc})$. The photon indices of the power law spectra of the lateral tails, $\Gamma \approx 1$, are significantly harder than those of the pulsar ($\Gamma \approx 1.5$) and the axial tail ($\Gamma \approx 1.6$). There is no significant diffuse X-ray emission between the lateral tails -- the ratio of the X-ray surface brightness between the south tail and this sky area is at least 12. The lateral tails apparently connect directly to the pulsar and show indication of moving footpoints. The axial tail comprises time-variable emission blobs. However, there is no evidence for constant or decelerated outward motion of these blobs. Different physical models are consistent with the observed morphology and spectra of the Geminga PWN. In one scenario, the lateral tails could represent an azimuthally asymmetric shell whose hard emission is caused by the Fermi acceleration mechanism of colliding winds. In another scenario, the lateral tails could be luminous, bent polar outflows, while the blobs in the axial tail could represent a crushed torus. In a resemblance to planetary magnetotails, the blobs of the axial tail might also represent short-lived plasmoids which are formed by magnetic field reconnection in the relativistic plasma of the pulsar wind tail., Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables, accepted by ApJ

Pulsars traveling at supersonic speeds are often accompanied by cometary bow shocks seen in Halpha. We report on the first detection of a pulsar bow shock in the far-ultraviolet (FUV). We detected it in FUV images of the nearest millisecond pulsar J0437-4715 obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. The images reveal a bow-like structure positionally coincident with part of the previously detected Halpha bow shock, with an apex at 10" ahead of the moving pulsar. Its FUV luminosity, L(1250-2000 A) ~ 5x10^28 erg/s, exceeds the Halpha luminosity from the same area by a factor of 10. The FUV emission could be produced by the shocked ISM matter or, less likely, by relativistic pulsar wind electrons confined by strong magnetic field fluctuations in the bow shock. In addition, in the FUV images we found a puzzling extended (~3" in size) structure overlapping with the limb of the bow shock. If related to the bow shock, it could be produced by an inhomogeneity in the ambient medium or an instability in the bow shock. We also report on a previously undetected X-ray emission extending for about 5" ahead of the pulsar, possibly a pulsar wind nebula created by shocked pulsar wind, with a luminosity L(0.5-8 keV) ~ 3x10^28 erg/s., Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal

We include a general form for the scattering mean free path in a nonlinear Monte Carlo model of relativistic shock formation and Fermi acceleration. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, as well as analytic work, suggest that relativistic shocks tend to produce short-scale, self-generated magnetic turbulence that leads to a scattering mean free path (mfp) with a stronger momentum dependence than the mfp ~ p dependence for Bohm diffusion. In unmagnetized shocks, this turbulence is strong enough to dominate the background magnetic field so the shock can be treated as parallel regardless of the initial magnetic field orientation, making application to gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), pulsar winds, Type Ibc supernovae, and extra-galactic radio sources more straightforward and realistic. In addition to changing the scale of the shock precursor, we show that, when nonlinear effects from efficient Fermi acceleration are taken into account, the momentum dependence of the mfp has an important influence on the efficiency of cosmic-ray production as well as the accelerated particle spectral shape. These effects are absent in nonrelativistic shocks and do not appear in relativistic shock models unless nonlinear effects are self-consistently described. We show, for limited examples, how the changes in Fermi acceleration translate to changes in the intensity and spectral shape of gamma-ray emission from proton-proton interactions and pion-decay radiation., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Clusters of galaxies are the largest gravitationally bounded structures in the Universe dominated by dark matter. We review the observational appearance and physical models of plasma structures in clusters of galaxies. Bubbles of relativistic plasma which are inflated by supermassive black holes of AGNs, cooling and heating of the gas, large scale plasma shocks, cold fronts, non-thermal halos and relics are observed in clusters. These constituents are reflecting both the formation history and the dynamical properties of clusters of galaxies. We discuss X-ray spectroscopy as a tool to study the metal enrichment in clusters and fine spectroscopy of Fe X-ray lines as a powerful diagnostics of both the turbulent plasma motions and the energetics of the non-thermal electron populations. The knowledge of the complex dynamical and feedback processes is necessary to understand the energy and matter balance as well as to constrain the role of the non-thermal components of clusters., Comment: 55 pages, 24 pages

Starburst regions with multiple powerful winds of young massive stars and supernova remnants are favorable sites for high-energy cosmic ray acceleration. A supernova shock colliding with a fast wind from a compact cluster of young stars allows the acceleration of protons to energies well above the standard limits of diffusive shock acceleration in an isolated SN. The proton spectrum in such a wind-supernova PeV accelerator is hard with a large flux in the high-energy-end of the spectrum producing copious gamma-rays and neutrinos in inelastic nuclear collisions. We argue that SN shocks in the Westerlund 1 cluster in the Milky Way may accelerate protons to about 40 PeV. Once accelerated, these CRs will diffuse into surrounding dense clouds and produce neutrinos with fluxes sufficient to explain a fraction of the events detected by IceCube Observatory from the inner Galaxy., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, MNRAS v.453, p.113-121, 2015

We have modeled the simultaneous first-order Fermi shock acceleration of protons, electrons, and helium nuclei by relativistic shocks. By parameterizing the particle diffusion, our steady-state Monte Carlo simulation allows us to follow particles from particle injection at nonthermal thermal energies to above PeV energies, including the nonlinear smoothing of the shock structure due to cosmic-ray (CR) backpressure. We observe the mass-to-charge (A/Z) enhancement effect believed to occur in efficient Fermi acceleration in non-relativistic shocks and we parameterize the transfer of ion energy to electrons seen in particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. For a given set of environmental and model parameters, the Monte Carlo simulation determines the absolute normalization of the particle distributions and the resulting synchrotron, inverse-Compton, and pion-decay emission in a largely self-consistent manner. The simulation is flexible and can be readily used with a wide range of parameters typical of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows. We describe some preliminary results for photon emission from shocks of different Lorentz factors and outline how the Monte Carlo simulation can be generalized and coupled to hydrodynamic simulations of GRB blast waves. We assume Bohm diffusion for simplicity but emphasize that the nonlinear effects we describe stem mainly from an extended shock precursor where higher energy particles diffuse further upstream. Quantitative differences will occur with different diffusion models, particularly for the maximum CR energy and photon emission, but these nonlinear effects should be qualitatively similar as long as the scattering mean free path is an increasing function of momentum., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present a nonlinear Monte Carlo model of efficient diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) where the magnetic turbulence responsible for particle diffusion is calculated self-consistently from the resonant cosmic-ray (CR) streaming instability, together with non-resonant short- and long-wavelength CR-current-driven instabilities. We include the backpressure from CRs interacting with the strongly amplified magnetic turbulence which decelerates and heats the super-alfvenic flow in the extended shock precursor. Uniquely, in our plane-parallel, steady-state, multi-scale model, the full range of particles, from thermal (~eV) injected at the viscous subshock, to the escape of the highest energy CRs (~PeV) from the shock precursor, are calculated consistently with the shock structure, precursor heating, magnetic field amplification (MFA), and scattering center drift relative to the background plasma. In addition, we show how the cascade of turbulence to shorter wavelengths influences the total shock compression, the downstream proton temperature, the magnetic fluctuation spectra, and accelerated particle spectra. A parameter survey is included where we vary shock parameters, the mode of magnetic turbulence generation, and turbulence cascading. From our survey results, we obtain scaling relations for the maximum particle momentum and amplified magnetic field as functions of shock speed, ambient density, and shock size., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

The large-scale structure of the Universe formed from initially small perturbations in the cosmic density field, leading to galaxy clusters with up to 10^15 Msun at the present day. Here, we review the formation of structures in the Universe, considering the first primordial galaxies and the most massive galaxy clusters as extreme cases of structure formation where fundamental processes such as gravity, turbulence, cooling and feedback are particularly relevant. The first non-linear objects in the Universe formed in dark matter halos with 10^5-10^8 Msun at redshifts 10-30, leading to the first stars and massive black holes. At later stages, larger scales became non-linear, leading to the formation of galaxy clusters, the most massive objects in the Universe. We describe here their formation via gravitational processes, including the self-similar scaling relations, as well as the observed deviations from such self-similarity and the related non-gravitational physics (cooling, stellar feedback, AGN). While on intermediate cluster scales the self-similar model is in good agreement with the observations, deviations from such self-similarity are apparent in the core regions, where numerical simulations do not reproduce the current observational results. The latter indicates that the interaction of different feedback processes may not be correctly accounted for in current simulations. Both in the most massive clusters of galaxies as well as during the formation of the first objects in the Universe, turbulent structures and shock waves appear to be common, suggesting them to be ubiquitous in the non-linear regime., Comment: Review article. Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. It will appear as a contribution to an ISSI book

We present results from a Monte Carlo simulation of a parallel collisionless shock undergoing particle acceleration. Our simulation, which contains parameterized scattering and a particular thermal leakage injection model, calculates the feedback between accelerated particles ahead of the shock, which influence the shock precursor and "smooth" the shock, and thermal particle injection. We show that there is a transition between nonrelativistic shocks, where the acceleration efficiency can be extremely high and the nonlinear compression ratio can be substantially greater than the Rankine-Hugoniot value, and fully relativistic shocks, where diffusive shock acceleration is less efficient and the compression ratio remains at the Rankine-Hugoniot value. This transition occurs in the trans-relativistic regime and, for the particular parameters we use, occurs around a shock Lorentz factor = 1.5. We also find that nonlinear shock smoothing dramatically reduces the acceleration efficiency presumed to occur with large-angle scattering in ultra-relativistic shocks. Our ability to seamlessly treat the transition from ultra-relativistic to trans-relativistic to nonrelativistic shocks may be important for evolving relativistic systems, such as gamma-ray bursts and type Ibc supernovae. We expect a substantial evolution of shock accelerated spectra during this transition from soft early on to much harder when the blast-wave shock becomes nonrelativistic., Comment: Accepted in ApJ August, 2013

Energetic nonthermal particles (cosmic rays, CRs) are accelerated in supernova remnants, relativistic jets and other astrophysical objects. The CR energy density is typically comparable with that of the thermal components and magnetic fields. In this review we discuss mechanisms of magnetic field amplification due to instabilities induced by CRs. We derive CR kinetic and magnetohydrodynamic equations that govern cosmic plasma systems comprising the thermal background plasma, comic rays and fluctuating magnetic fields to study CR-driven instabilities. Both resonant and non-resonant instabilities are reviewed, including the Bell short-wavelength instability, and the firehose instability. Special attention is paid to the longwavelength instabilities driven by the CR current and pressure gradient. The helicity production by the CR current-driven instabilities is discussed in connection with the dynamo mechanisms of cosmic magnetic field amplification., Comment: 37 pages, 7 figures, Space Science Reviews (in press)

In this review we discuss some observational aspects and theoretical models of astrophysical collisionless shocks in partly ionized plasma with the presence of non-thermal components. A specific feature of fast strong collisionless shocks is their ability to accelerate energetic particles that can modify the shock upstream flow and form the shock precursors. We discuss the effects of energetic particle acceleration and associated magnetic field amplification and decay in the extended shock precursors on the line and continuum multi-wavelength emission spectra of the shocks. Both Balmer-type and radiative astrophysical shocks are discussed in connection to supernova remnants interacting with partially neutral clouds. Quantitative models described in the review predict a number of observable line-like emission features that can be used to reveal the physical state of the matter in the shock precursors and the character of nonthermal processes in the shocks. Implications of recent progress of gamma-ray observations of supernova remnants in molecular clouds are highlighted., Comment: 38 pages, 10 figures, Space Science Reviews (to be published)

We discuss processes in galactic cosmic ray (GCR) acceleration sites - supernova remnants, compact associations of young massive stars, and superbubbles. Mechanisms of efficient conversion of the mechanical power of the outflows driven by supernova shocks and fast stellar winds of young stars into magnetic fields and relativistic particles are discussed. The high efficiency of particle acceleration in the sources implies the importance of nonlinear feedback effects in a symbiotic relationship where the magnetic turbulence required to accelerate the CRs is created by the accelerated CRs themselves. Non-thermal emission produced by relativistic particles (both those confined in and those that escape from the cosmic accelerators) can be used to constrain the basic physical models of the GCR sources. High resolution X-ray synchrotron imaging, combined with GeV-TeV gamma ray spectra, is a powerful tool to probe the maximum energies of accelerated particles. Future MeV regime spectroscopy will provide unique information on the composition of accelerated particles., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, invited talk at "High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy", eds. F.Aharonian, W.Hofmann, F.Rieger