Galactic cosmic ray transport in the absence of resonant scattering

Abstract

ABSTRACT Galactic cosmic ray transport relies on the existence of turbulence on scales comparable with the gyration radius of the particles and with wavenumber vector oriented along the local magnetic field. In the standard picture, in which turbulence is injected at large scales and cascades down to smaller scales, it is all but guaranteed that the turbulent fluctuations at the scales relevant for resonant scattering may be present, either because of anisotropic cascading or because of the onset of damping processes. This raises questions on the nature of cosmic ray scattering, especially at energies ≳1 TeV, where self-generation is hardly relevant. Here, by means of numerical simulations of charged test particles in a prescribed magnetic field, we perform a gedankenexperiment aimed at investigating particle diffusion in a situation in which turbulence is mainly present at large scales, and discuss possible implications of this set-up for cosmic ray transport phenomenology.