A Quasi-static Hyper-resistive Model of Ultra-high-energy Cosmic-ray Acceleration by Magnetically Collimated Jets Created by Active Galactic Nuclei

Abstract

This is the fourth in a series of companion papers showing that when an efficient dynamo can be maintained by accretion disks around supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei, it will lead to the formation of a powerful, magnetically collimated helix that could explain the observed jet/radiolobe structures on very large scales. Here, we present a hyper-resistive kinetic theory that shows how different instabilities can cause the slowly evolving magnetically collimated jets to accelerate ions and electrons in different regions of jets and lobes. In particular, we propose that the Drift Cyclotron Loss Cone instability at the ends of jets can accelerate ions up to the observed ultra-high-energy cosmic rays with energies ≈10 20 eV. Based on this jet/lobe structure model and its associated acceleration processes, we estimate cosmic-ray intensities and likely radiative signatures and compare them with observations.