Journal
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
Volume 429, Issue 3, Pages 755-765Publisher
EDP SCIENCES S A
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20041517
Keywords
ISM : supernova remnants; ISM : cosmic rays
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The cosmic-ray streaming instability creates strong magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in the precursor of a SN shock. The level of turbulence determines the maximum energy of cosmic-ray particles accelerated by the diffusive shock acceleration mechanism. In this paper we present the continuation of previous work (Ptuskin & Zirakashvili 2003). We assume that Kolmogorov type nonlinear wave interactions together with ion-neutral collisions restrict the amplitude of the random magnetic field. As a result, the maximum energy of the accelerated particles strongly depends on the age of a SNR. The average spectrum of cosmic rays injected in the interstellar medium in the course of the adiabatic SNR evolution (the Sedov stage) is approximately Q(p)p(2) proportional to p(-2) at energies larger than 10-30 GeV/nucleon and with a maximum particle energy that is close to the position of the knee in the cosmic-ray spectrum observed at similar to4 x 10(15) eV. At an earlier stage of SNR evolution-the ejecta-dominated stage described by the Chevalier-Nadyozhin solution, the particles are accelerated to higher energies and have a rather steep power-law distribution. These results suggest that the knee may mark the transition from the ejecta-dominated to the adiabatic evolution of SNR shocks which accelerate cosmic rays.
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