Self-similar Cosmic-Ray Transport in High-resolution Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence

Abstract We study the propagation of cosmic rays (CRs) through a simulation of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence at an unprecedented resolution of 10,240 3 . We drive turbulence that is subsonic and super-Alfvénic, characterized by δB rms / B 0 = 2. The high resolution enables an extended inertial range such that the Alfvén scale l A , where δB ( l A ) ≈ B 0 , is well resolved. This allows us to properly capture how the cascade transitions from large amplitudes on large scales to small amplitudes on small scales. We find that sharp bends in the magnetic field are key mediators of particle transport even on small scales via resonant curvature scattering. We further find that particle scattering in the turbulence shows strong hints of self-similarity: (1) the diffusion has a weak energy dependence over almost two decades in particle energy, and (2) the particles’ random walk exhibits a broad power-law distribution of collision times such that the diffusion is dominated by the rarest, long-distance excursions. Our results suggest that large-amplitude MHD turbulence can provide efficient scattering over a wide range of CR energies and may help explain many CR observations above a ∼TeV: the flattening of the B/C spectrum, the hardening of CR primary spectra, and the weak dependence of arrival anisotropy on CR energy.