Intermittency of magnetic field turbulence: Astrophysical applications of in-situ observations

Abstract

We briefly review some aspects of magnetic turbulence intermittency observed in space plasmas. Deviation of statistical characteristics of a system (e.g. its high statistical momenta) from the Gaussian can manifest itself as domination of rare large intensity peaks often associated with the intermittency in the system's dynamics. Thirty years ago, Zeldovich stressed the importance of the non-Gaussian appearance of the sharp values of vector and scalar physical parameters in random media as a factor of magnetic field amplification in cosmic structures. Magnetic turbulence is governing the behavior of collisionless plasmas in space and especially the physics of shocks and magnetic reconnections. Clear evidence of intermittent magnetic turbulence was found in recent in-situ spacecraft measurements of magnetic fields in the near-Earth and interplanetary plasma environments. We discuss the potentially promising approaches of incorporating the knowledge gained from spacecraft in-situ measurements into modern models describing plasma dynamics and radiation in various astrophysical systems. As an example, we discuss supernova remnants (SNRs) which are known to be the sources of energy, momentum, chemical elements, and high-energy cosmic rays (CRs) in galaxies. Supernova shocks accelerate charged particles to very high energies and may strongly amplify turbulent magnetic fields via instabilities driven by CRs. Relativistic electrons accelerated in SNRs radiate polarized synchrotron emission in a broad range of frequencies spanning from the radio to gamma-rays. We discuss the effects of intermittency of magnetic turbulence on the images of polarized synchrotron X-ray emission of young SNRs and emission spectra of pulsar wind nebula.