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1. Spatial Intermittency of Particle Distribution in Relativistic Plasma Turbulence

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/accd73  

   Vega, Cristian; Boldyrev, Stanislav; Roytershteyn, Vadim (June 2023, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract Relativistic magnetically dominated turbulence is an efficient engine for particle acceleration in a collisionless plasma. Ultrarelativistic particles accelerated by interactions with turbulent fluctuations form nonthermal power-law distribution functions in the momentum (or energy) space,f(γ)dγ∝γ^−αdγ, whereγis the Lorenz factor. We argue that in addition to exhibiting non-Gaussian distributions over energies, particles energized by relativistic turbulence also become highly intermittent in space. Based on particle-in-cell numerical simulations and phenomenological modeling, we propose that the bulk plasma density has lognormal statistics, while the density of the accelerated particles,n, has a power-law distribution function, $P\left(n\right)\mathit{dn}\propto n^{-\beta }\mathit{dn}$. We argue that the scaling exponents are related asβ≈α+ 1, which is broadly consistent with numerical simulations. Non-space-filling, intermittent distributions of plasma density and energy fluctuations may have implications for plasma heating and for radiation produced by relativistic turbulence. 

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2. Bridging Scales in Black Hole Accretion and Feedback: Magnetized Bondi Accretion in 3D GRMHD

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad1048  

   Cho 조, Hyerin 혜린; Prather, Ben S.; Narayan, Ramesh; Natarajan, Priyamvada; Su, Kung-Yi; Ricarte, Angelo; Chatterjee, Koushik (December 2023, The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Abstract Fueling and feedback couple supermassive black holes (SMBHs) to their host galaxies across many orders of magnitude in spatial and temporal scales, making this problem notoriously challenging to simulate. We use a multi-zone computational method based on the general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) code KHARMA that allows us to span 7 orders of magnitude in spatial scale, to simulate accretion onto a non-spinning SMBH from an external medium with a Bondi radius ofR_B≈ 2 × 10⁵GM_•/c², whereM_•is the SMBH mass. For the classic idealized Bondi problem, spherical gas accretion without magnetic fields, our simulation results agree very well with the general relativistic analytic solution. Meanwhile, when the accreting gas is magnetized, the SMBH magnetosphere becomes saturated with a strong magnetic field. The density profile varies as ∼r⁻¹rather thanr^−3/2and the accretion rate $\dot{M}$is consequently suppressed by over 2 orders of magnitude below the Bondi rate ${\dot{M}}_{\mathrm{B}}$. We find continuous energy feedback from the accretion flow to the external medium at a level of $\sim {10}^{-2}\dot{M}{c}^2\sim 5\times {10}^{-5}{\dot{M}}_{\mathrm{B}}{c}^2$. Energy transport across these widely disparate scales occurs via turbulent convection triggered by magnetic field reconnection near the SMBH. Thus, strong magnetic fields that accumulate on horizon scales transform the flow dynamics far from the SMBH and naturally explain observed extremely low accretion rates compared to the Bondi rate, as well as at least part of the energy feedback. 

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3. Scaling of Ion Bulk Heating in Magnetic Reconnection Outflows for the High-Alfvén-speed and Low-β Regime in Earth’s Magnetotail

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad6151  

   Øieroset, M; Phan, T D; Drake, J F; Starkey, M; Fuselier, S A; Cohen, I J; Haggerty, C C; Shay, M A; Oka, M; Gershman, D J; et al (August 2024, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We survey 20 reconnection outflow events observed by Magnetospheric MultiScale in the low-βand high-Alfvén-speed regime of the Earth’s magnetotail to investigate the scaling of ion bulk heating produced by reconnection. The range of inflow Alfvén speeds (800–4000 km s⁻¹) and inflow ionβ(0.002–1) covered by this study is in a plasma regime that could be applicable to the solar corona and flare environments. We find that the observed ion heating increases with increasing inflow (upstream) Alfvén speed,V_A, based on the reconnecting magnetic field and the upstream plasma density. However, ion heating does not increase linearly as a function of available magnetic energy per particle, ${{\mathit{m}}_{\mathrm{i}}{\mathit{V}}_{\mathrm{A}}}^2$. Instead, the heating increases progressively less as ${{\mathit{m}}_{\mathrm{i}}{\mathit{V}}_{\mathrm{A}}}^2$rises. This is in contrast to a previous study using the same data set, which found that electron heating in this high-Alfvén-speed and low-βregime scales linearly with ${{\mathit{m}}_{\mathrm{i}}{\mathit{V}}_{\mathrm{A}}}^2$, with a scaling factor nearly identical to that found for the low-V_Aand high-βmagnetopause. Consequently, the ion-to-electron heating ratio in reconnection exhausts decreases with increasing upstreamV_A, suggesting that the energy partition between ions and electrons in reconnection exhausts could be a function of the available magnetic energy per particle. Finally, we find that the observed difference in ion and electron heating scaling may be consistent with the predicted effects of a trapping potential in the exhaust, which enhances electron heating, but reduces ion heating. 

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4. Kinetic-scale Current Sheets in the Solar Wind at 1 au: Scale-dependent Properties and Critical Current Density

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac4fc4  

   Vasko, I. Y.; Alimov, K.; Phan, T.; Bale, S. D.; Mozer, F. S.; Artemyev, A. V. (February 2022, The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   Abstract We present analysis of 17,043 proton kinetic-scale current sheets (CSs) collected over 124 days of Wind spacecraft measurements in the solar wind at 11 samples s⁻¹magnetic field resolution. The CSs have thickness,λ,from a few tens to one thousand kilometers with typical values around 100 km, or within about 0.1–10λ_pin terms of local proton inertial length,λ_p. We found that the current density is larger for smaller-scale CSs,J₀≈ 6 nAm⁻²· (λ/100 km)^−0.56, but does not statistically exceed a critical value,J_A,corresponding to the drift between ions and electrons of local Alvén speed. The observed trend holds in normalized units: $J_0/J_A\approx 0.17·{\left(\lambda /{\lambda }_p\right)}^{-0.51}$. The CSs are statistically force-free with magnetic shear angle correlated with CS spatial scale: $\mathrm{\Delta }\theta \approx 19°·{\left(\lambda /{\lambda }_p\right)}^{0.5}$. The observed correlations are consistent with local turbulence being the source of proton kinetic-scale CSs in the solar wind, while the mechanisms limiting the current density remain to be understood. 

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5. Ordinary modules for vertex algebras of 𝔬𝔰𝔭 _1|2𝑛

   https://doi.org/10.1515/crelle-2024-0060  

   Creutzig, Thomas; Genra, Naoki; Linshaw, Andrew (August 2024, Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik (Crelles Journal))

   Abstract We show that the affine vertex superalgebra $V^k\left(\mathfrak{o}\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{1|2n}\right)$V^{k}(\mathfrak{osp}_{1|2n})at generic level 𝑘 embeds in the equivariant 𝒲-algebra of $\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{2n}$\mathfrak{sp}_{2n}times $4n$4nfree fermions.This has two corollaries:(1) it provides a new proof that, for generic 𝑘, the coset $\mathrm{Com}(V^k\left(\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{2n}\right),V^k\left(\mathfrak{o}\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{1|2n}\right))$\operatorname{Com}(V^{k}(\mathfrak{sp}_{2n}),V^{k}(\mathfrak{osp}_{1|2n}))is isomorphic to ${\mathcal{W}}^{\mathrm{\ell }}\left(\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{2n}\right)$\mathcal{W}^{\ell}(\mathfrak{sp}_{2n})for $\mathrm{\ell }=-\left(n+1\right)+\left(k+n+1\right)/\left(2k+2n+1\right)$\ell=-(n+1)+(k+n+1)/(2k+2n+1), and(2) we obtain the decomposition of ordinary $V^k\left(\mathfrak{o}\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{1|2n}\right)$V^{k}(\mathfrak{osp}_{1|2n})-modules into $V^k\left(\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{2n}\right)\otimes {\mathcal{W}}^{\mathrm{\ell }}\left(\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{2n}\right)$V^{k}(\mathfrak{sp}_{2n})\otimes\mathcal{W}^{\ell}(\mathfrak{sp}_{2n})-modules.Next, if 𝑘 is an admissible level and ℓ is a non-degenerate admissible level for $\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{2n}$\mathfrak{sp}_{2n}, we show that the simple algebra $L_k\left(\mathfrak{o}\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{1|2n}\right)$L_{k}(\mathfrak{osp}_{1|2n})is an extension of the simple subalgebra $L_k\left(\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{2n}\right)\otimes {\mathcal{W}}_{\mathrm{\ell }}\left(\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{2n}\right)$L_{k}(\mathfrak{sp}_{2n})\otimes{\mathcal{W}}_{\ell}(\mathfrak{sp}_{2n}).Using the theory of vertex superalgebra extensions, we prove that the category of ordinary $L_k\left(\mathfrak{o}\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{1|2n}\right)$L_{k}(\mathfrak{osp}_{1|2n})-modules is a semisimple, rigid vertex tensor supercategory with only finitely many inequivalent simple objects.It is equivalent to a certain subcategory of ${\mathcal{W}}_{\mathrm{\ell }}\left(\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{2n}\right)$\mathcal{W}_{\ell}(\mathfrak{sp}_{2n})-modules.A similar result also holds for the category of Ramond twisted modules.Due to a recent theorem of Robert McRae, we get as a corollary that categories of ordinary $L_k\left(\mathfrak{s}{\mathfrak{p}}_{2n}\right)$L_{k}(\mathfrak{sp}_{2n})-modules are rigid. 

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