Regimes of cosmic-ray diffusion in Galactic turbulence.

Cosmic-ray transport in astrophysical environments is often dominated by the diffusion of particles in a magnetic field composed of both a turbulent and a mean component. This process, which is two-fold turbulent mixing in that the particle motion is stochastic with respect to the field lines, needs to be understood in order to properly model cosmic-ray signatures. One of the most important aspects in the modeling of cosmic-ray diffusion is that fully resonant scattering, the most effective such process, is only possible if the wave spectrum covers the entire range of propagation angles. By taking the wave spectrum boundaries into account, we quantify cosmic-ray diffusion parallel and perpendicular to the guide field direction at turbulence levels above 5% of the total magnetic field. We apply our results of the parallel and perpendicular diffusion coefficient to the Milky Way. We show that simple purely diffusive transport is in conflict with observations of the inner Galaxy, but that just by taking a Galactic wind into account, data can be matched in the central 5 kpc zone. Further comparison shows that the outer Galaxy at > 5  kpc, on the other hand, should be dominated by perpendicular diffusion, likely changing to parallel diffusion at the outermost radii of the Milky Way.

The impact of recent advances in laboratory astrophysics on our understanding of the cosmos.

An emerging theme in modern astrophysics is the connection between astronomical observations and the underlying physical phenomena that drive our cosmos. Both the mechanisms responsible for the observed astrophysical phenomena and the tools used to probe such phenomena-the radiation and particle spectra we observe-have their roots in atomic, molecular, condensed matter, plasma, nuclear and particle physics. Chemistry is implicitly included in both molecular and condensed matter physics. This connection is the theme of the present report, which provides a broad, though non-exhaustive, overview of progress in our understanding of the cosmos resulting from recent theoretical and experimental advances in what is commonly called laboratory astrophysics. This work, carried out by a diverse community of laboratory astrophysicists, is increasingly important as astrophysics transitions into an era of precise measurement and high fidelity modeling.

Absence of complete finite-Larmor-radius stabilization in extended MHD.

The dominant finite-Larmour-radius (FLR) stabilization effects on interchange instability can be retained by taking into account the ion gyroviscosity or the generalized Ohm's law in an extended MHD model. However, recent simulations and theoretical calculations indicate that complete FLR stabilization of the interchange mode may not be attainable by ion gyroviscosity or the two-fluid effect alone in the framework of extended MHD. For a class of plasma equilibria in certain finite-beta or nonisentropic regimes, the critical wave number for complete FLR stabilization tends toward infinity.