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1. An accurate treatment of scattering and diffusion in piecewise power-law models for cosmic ray and radiation/neutrino transport

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac3283  

   Hopkins, Philip F. ( November 2022 , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   A popular numerical method to model the dynamics of a ‘full spectrum’ of cosmic rays (CRs), also applicable to radiation/neutrino hydrodynamics, is to discretize the spectrum at each location/cell as a piecewise power law in ‘bins’ of momentum (or frequency) space. This gives rise to a pair of conserved quantities (e.g. CR number and energy) that are exchanged between cells or bins, which in turn give the update to the normalization and slope of the spectrum in each bin. While these methods can be evolved exactly in momentum-space (e.g. considering injection, absorption, continuous losses/gains), numerical challenges arise dealing with spatial fluxes, if the scattering rates depend on momentum. This has often been treated either by neglecting variation of those rates ‘within the bin,’ or sacrificing conservation – introducing significant errors. Here, we derive a rigorous treatment of these terms, and show that the variation within the bin can be accounted for accurately with a simple set of scalar correction coefficients that can be written entirely in terms of other, explicitly evolved ‘bin-integrated’ quantities. This eliminates the relevant errors without added computational cost, has no effect on the numerical stability of the method, and retains manifest conservation. We derive correction terms both for methods that explicitly integrate flux variables (e.g. two-moment or M1-like) methods, as well as single-moment (advection-diffusion, FLD-like) methods, and approximate corrections valid in various limits.

    

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2. Cosmic ray feedback in the FIRE simulations: constraining cosmic ray propagation with GeV gamma ray emission

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz1895  

   Chan, T K ; Kereš, D ; Hopkins, P F ; Quataert, E ; Su, K-Y ; Hayward, C C ; Faucher-Giguère, C-A ( July 2019 , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   Abstract We present the implementation and the first results of cosmic ray (CR) feedback in the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) simulations. We investigate CR feedback in non-cosmological simulations of dwarf, sub-L⋆ starburst, and L⋆ galaxies with different propagation models, including advection, isotropic and anisotropic diffusion, and streaming along field lines with different transport coefficients. We simulate CR diffusion and streaming simultaneously in galaxies with high resolution, using a two moment method. We forward-model and compare to observations of γ-ray emission from nearby and starburst galaxies. We reproduce the γ-ray observations of dwarf and L⋆ galaxies with constant isotropic diffusion coefficient κ ∼ 3 × 1029 cm2 s−1. Advection-only and streaming-only models produce order-of-magnitude too large γ-ray luminosities in dwarf and L⋆ galaxies. We show that in models that match the γ-ray observations, most CRs escape low-gas-density galaxies (e.g. dwarfs) before significant collisional losses, while starburst galaxies are CR proton calorimeters. While adiabatic losses can be significant, they occur only after CRs escape galaxies, so they are only of secondary importance for γ-ray emissivities. Models where CRs are “trapped” in the star-forming disk have lower star formation efficiency, but these models are ruled out by γ-ray observations. For models with constant κ that match the γ-ray observations, CRs form extended halos with scale heights of several kpc to several tens of kpc. 

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3. First predicted cosmic ray spectra, primary-to-secondary ratios, and ionization rates from MHD galaxy formation simulations

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1791  

   Hopkins, Philip F. ; Butsky, Iryna S. ; Panopoulou, Georgia V. ; Ji, Suoqing ; Quataert, Eliot ; Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André ; Kereš, Dušan ( July 2022 , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   We present the first simulations evolving resolved spectra of cosmic rays (CRs) from MeV–TeV energies (including electrons, positrons, (anti)protons, and heavier nuclei), in live kinetic-magnetohydrodynamics galaxy simulations with star formation and feedback. We utilize new numerical methods including terms often neglected in historical models, comparing Milky Way analogues with phenomenological scattering coefficients ν to Solar-neighbourhood [Local interstellar medium (LISM)] observations (spectra, B/C, e+/e−, $\mathrm{\bar{p}}/\mathrm{p}$, 10Be/9Be, ionization, and γ-rays). We show it is possible to reproduce observations with simple single-power-law injection and scattering coefficients (scaling with rigidity R), similar to previous (non-dynamical) calculations. We also find: (1) The circumgalactic medium in realistic galaxies necessarily imposes an $\sim 10\,$ kpc CR scattering halo, influencing the required ν(R). (2) Increasing the normalization of ν(R) re-normalizes CR secondary spectra but also changes primary spectral slopes, owing to source distribution and loss effects. (3) Diffusive/turbulent reacceleration is unimportant and generally sub-dominant to gyroresonant/streaming losses, which are sub-dominant to adiabatic/convective terms dominated by $\sim 0.1-1\,$ kpc turbulent/fountain motions. (4) CR spectra vary considerably across galaxies; certain features can arise from local structure rather than transport physics. (5) Systematic variation in CR ionization rates between LISM and molecular clouds (or Galactic position) arises naturally without invoking alternative sources. (6) Abundances of CNO nuclei require most CR acceleration occurs around when reverse shocks form in SNe, not in OB wind bubbles or later Sedov–Taylor stages of SNe remnants.

    

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4. Cosmic-Ray Drag and Damping of Compressive Turbulence

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aceef9  

   Bustard, Chad ; Oh, S. Peng ( September 2023 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   While it is well known that cosmic rays (CRs) can gain energy from turbulence via second-order Fermi acceleration, how this energy transfer affects the turbulent cascade remains largely unexplored. Here, we show that damping and steepening of the compressive turbulent power spectrum are expected once the damping time$t_{\mathrm{damp}}\sim \rho v^2/{\dot{E}}_{\mathrm{CR}}\propto E_{\mathrm{CR}}^{-1}$becomes comparable to the turbulent cascade time. Magnetohydrodynamic simulations of stirred compressive turbulence in a gas-CR fluid with diffusive CR transport show clear imprints of CR-induced damping, saturating at${\dot{E}}_{\mathrm{CR}}\sim \widetilde{ϵ}$, where$\widetilde{ϵ}$is the turbulent energy input rate. In that case, almost all of the energy in large-scale motions is absorbed by CRs and does not cascade down to grid scale. Through a Hodge–Helmholtz decomposition, we confirm that purely compressive forcing can generate significant solenoidal motions, and we find preferential CR damping of the compressive component in simulations with diffusion and streaming, rendering small-scale turbulence largely solenoidal, with implications for thermal instability and proposed resonant scattering ofE≳ 300 GeV CRs by fast modes. When CR transport is streaming dominated, CRs also damp large-scale motions, with kinetic energy reduced by up to 1 order of magnitude in realisticE_CR∼E_gscenarios, but turbulence (with a reduced amplitude) still cascades down to small scales with the same power spectrum. Such large-scale damping implies that turbulent velocities obtained from the observed velocity dispersion may significantly underestimate turbulent forcing rates, i.e.,$\widetilde{ϵ}\gg \rho v^3/L$.

    

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5. A new moment-based general-relativistic neutrino-radiation transport code: Methods and first applications to neutron star mergers

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac589  

   Radice, David ; Bernuzzi, Sebastiano ; Perego, Albino ; Haas, Roland ( March 2022 , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   We present a new moment-based energy-integrated neutrino transport code for neutron star merger simulations in general relativity. In the merger context, ours is the first code to include Doppler effects at all orders in υ/c, retaining all non-linear neutrino–matter coupling terms. The code is validated with a stringent series of tests. We show that the inclusion of full neutrino–matter coupling terms is necessary to correctly capture the trapping of neutrinos in relativistically moving media, such as in differentially rotating merger remnants. We perform preliminary simulations proving the robustness of the scheme in simulating ab-initio mergers to black hole collapse and long-term neutron star remnants up to ${\sim }70\,$ ms. The latter is the longest dynamical space-time, 3D, general relativistic simulations with full neutrino transport to date. We compare results obtained at different resolutions and using two different closures for the moment scheme. We do not find evidences of significant out-of-thermodynamic equilibrium effects, such as bulk viscosity, on the post-merger dynamics or gravitational wave emission. Neutrino luminosities and average energies are in good agreement with theory expectations and previous simulations by other groups using similar schemes. We compare dynamical and early wind ejecta properties obtained with M1 and with our older neutrino treatment. We find that the M1 results have systematically larger proton fractions. However, the differences in the nucleosynthesis yields are modest. This work sets the basis for future detailed studies spanning a wider set of neutrino reactions, binaries, and equations of state.

    

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