Cosmic particle accelerators

M ost cosmic rays are protons or atomic nuclei with energies around 108 eV. The results of the simulations suggest that magnetic field lines tangled like spaghetti in a bowl might be behind the most powerful particle accelerators in the universe. “The mechanism that creates these extreme particle energies isn’t known yet,” said SLAC staff scientist Frederico Fiuza, the principal investigator of this new study that has been published in “Physical Review Letters”. “But based on our simulations, we’re able to propose a new mechanism that can potentially explain how these cosmic particle accelerators work.” “We knew that the magnetic fields can become unstable,” said lead author Paulo Alves. The simulations showed that when the helical magnetic field is strongly distorted, the magnetic field lines become highly tangled and a large electric field is produced inside the jet.