Bell Instability–mediated Diffusive Shock Acceleration at Supernova Blast Wave Shock Propagating in the Interstellar Medium

Abstract

Supernova blast wave shock is a very important site of cosmic-ray acceleration. However, the detailed physical process of acceleration, in particular, nonlinear interplay between cosmic-ray streaming and magnetic field amplification, has not been studied under a realistic environment. In this paper, using a unique and novel numerical method, we study cosmic-ray acceleration at supernova blast wave shock propagating in the interstellar medium with well-resolved magnetic field amplification by nonresonant hybrid instability (or Bell instability). We find that the magnetic field is mildly amplified under typical interstellar medium conditions that leads to maximum cosmic-ray energy ≃30 TeV for supernova remnants with age ≃1000 yr consistent with gamma-ray observations. The strength of the amplified magnetic field does not reach the so-called saturation level because the cosmic-ray electric current toward the shock upstream has a finite spatial extent, by which Bell instability cannot experience many e-folding times.