Project C2

Projectleader

Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schlickeiser
Institute for Theoretical Physics IV
Ruhr-University Bochum

Title

Generation and amplification of cosmic magnetic fields by kinetic plasma instabilities

Summary

The generation and amplification of weakly amplified and weakly propagating cosmic magnetic
fields by kinetic instabilities of anisotropic particle distributions in fully and partially ionised plas-
mas is relevant for many cosmic sources including cosmological seed magnetic fields and powerful
outflow sources such as solar flares, stellar and galactic winds, pulsar wind nebula, supernova
shock waves and relativistic jets of active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray burst sources. The
existence of magnetic fields is a mandatory requirement for the onset of nonthermal phenomena
in such sources, that are well-established sources of high-energy photon radiation. Because in an
appropriate frame of reference any cosmic outflow source can be modeled as counterstreaming
plasmas, the magnetisation of such sources occurs by Weibel-type (in unmagnetised plasmas)
and filamentation (in weakly magnetised plasmas) instabilities that generate aperiodic fluctua-
tions in space which initially purely grow with time. Our investigations concentrate on the time
evolution of such fluctuations, their saturation level, the influence of finite spatial extents of
anisotropic plasmas, the role of associated transverse electric field fluctuations, and the calcu-
lation of scattering lengths and energy diffusion rates of plasma particles and energetic charged
test particles.