Abstract
We present results from particle-in-cell simulations of driven turbulence in magnetized, collisionless, and relativistic pair plasmas. We find that the fluctuations are consistent with the classical magnetic energy spectrum at fluid scales and a steeper spectrum at sub-Larmor scales, where is the wave vector perpendicular to the mean field. We demonstrate the development of a nonthermal, power-law particle energy distribution , with an index that decreases with increasing magnetization and increases with an increasing system size (relative to the characteristic Larmor radius). Our simulations indicate that turbulence can be a viable source of energetic particles in high-energy astrophysical systems, such as pulsar wind nebulae, if scalings asymptotically become insensitive to the system size.
- Received 14 September 2016
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.055103
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