DIFFUSIVE COSMIC-RAY ACCELERATION at RELATIVISTIC SHOCK WAVES with MAGNETOSTATIC TURBULENCE

Abstract

The analytical theory of diffusive cosmic-ray acceleration at parallel stationary shock waves with magnetostatic turbulence is generalized to arbitrary shock speeds Vs = β1c, including, in particular, relativistic speeds. This is chieved by applying the diffusion approximation to the relevant FokkerPlanck particle transport equation formulated in the mixed comoving coordinate system. In this coordinate system, the particle?s momentum coordinates p and μ = p∥/ p are taken in the rest frame of the streaming plasma, whereas the time and space coordinates are taken in the observer?s system. For magnetostatic slab turbulence, the diffusionconvection transport equation for the isotropic (in the rest frame of the streaming plasma) part of the particle?s phase space density is derived. For a step-wise shock velocity profile, the steady-state diffusionconvection transport equation is solved. For a symmetric pitch-angle scattering FokkerPlanck coefficient, Dμμ (-μ) = Dμ μ (μ), the steady-state solution is independent of the microphysical scattering details. For nonrelativistic mono-momentum particle injection at the shock, the differential number density of accelerated particles is a Lorentzian-type distribution function, which at large momenta approaches a power-law distribution function N (p ≥ pc ) ∝ p- with the spectral index (1β)=1 [3/(⌈ 1 √r 2 - β12 - 1) 1 + 3β21]. For nonrelativistic (β1 蠐 1) shock speeds, this spectral index agrees with the known result (β1 蠐 1) ≃ (r + 2) (r - 1), whereas for ultrarelativistic (Γ1 蠑 1) shock speeds the spectral index value is close to unity.