Cosmic-ray transport in inhomogeneous media

Journal article

A theory of cosmic-ray transport in multiphase diffusive media is developed, with the specific application to cases in which the cosmic-ray diffusion coefficient has large spatial fluctuations that may be inherently multiscale. We demonstrate that the resulting transport of cosmic rays is diffusive in the long-time limit, with an average diffusion coefficient equal to the harmonic mean of the spatially varying diffusion coefficient. Thus, cosmic-ray transport is dominated by areas of low diffusion even if these areas occupy a relatively small, but not infinitesimal, fraction of the volume. On intermediate time-scales, the cosmic rays experience transient effective subdiffusion, as a result of low-diffusion regions interrupting long flights through high-diffusion regions. In the simplified case of a two-phase medium, we show that the extent and extremity of the subdiffusivity of cosmic-ray transport is controlled by the spectral exponent of the distribution of patch sizes of each of the phases. We finally show that, despite strongly influencing the confinement times, the multiphase medium is only capable of altering the energy dependence of cosmic-ray transport when there is a moderate (but not excessive) level of perpendicular diffusion across magnetic-field lines.

Authors: Ewart, RJ; Reichherzer, P; Ren, S; Majeski, S; Mori, F

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Volume: 545
• Issue: 2
• Article number: staf2108
• Publication date: 2025-12-13
• Acceptance date: 2025-11-23
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staf2108
• EISSN: 1365-2966
• ISSN: 0035-8711
• Language: English
• Keywords: magnetic fields; diffusion; cosmic rays