Global Galactic Dynamo Driven by Cosmic Rays and Exploding Magnetized Stars
Abstract
We report the first results of the first global galactic-scale cosmic ray (CR)-MHD simulations of CR-driven dynamo. We investigate the dynamics of magnetized interstellar medium (ISM), which is dynamically coupled with CR gas. We assume that exploding stars deposit small-scale, randomly oriented, dipolar magnetic fields into the differentially rotating ISM, together with a portion of CRs, accelerated in supernova shocks. We conduct numerical simulations with the aid of a new parallel MHD code PIERNIK. We find that the initial magnetization of galactic disks by exploding magnetized stars forms favorable conditions for the CR-driven dynamo. We demonstrate that dipolar magnetic fields supplied on small supernova remnant scales can be amplified exponentially by the CR-driven dynamo, to the present equipartition values, and transformed simultaneously to large galactic scales. The resulting magnetic field structure in an evolved galaxy appears spiral in the face-on view and reveals the so-called X-shaped structure in the edge-on view.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- November 2009
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0907.4891
- Bibcode:
- 2009ApJ...706L.155H
- Keywords:
-
- cosmic rays;
- galaxies: ISM;
- galaxies: magnetic fields;
- ISM: magnetic fields;
- MHD;
- Astrophysics - Galaxy Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 11 pages, 4 figures