Confinement-Driven Spatial Variations in the Cosmic Ray Flux

Details Confinement-Driven Spatial Variations in the Cosmic Ray Flux Confinement-Driven Spatial Variations in the Cosmic Ray Flux

2005-03-28

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0503585v2

Astrophys.J. 624 (2005) L97-L100

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

4 pages, 1 figure included, to appear in ApJ Letters (Corrections after ApJ proofs)

Scientific paper

10.1086/430598

Low-energy cosmic rays (CRs) are confined by self-generated MHD waves in the mostly neutral ISM. We show that the CR transport equation can be expressed as a continuity equation for the CR number density involving an effective convection velocity. Assuming balance between wave growth and ion-neutral damping, this equation gives a steady-state condition n_cr ~ n_i^1/2 up to a critical density for free streaming. This relation naturally accounts for the heretofore unexplained difference in CR ionization rates derived for dense diffuse clouds (McCall et al. 2003) and dark clouds, and predicts large spatial variations in the CR heating rate and pressure.

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