title: Kinetic Turbulence in Relativistic Plasma: From Thermal Bath to Nonthermal Continuum.
abstract: We present results from particle-in-cell simulations of driven turbulence in magnetized, collisionless, and relativistic pair plasmas. We find that the fluctuations are consistent with the classical k_{⊥}^{-5/3} magnetic energy spectrum at fluid scales and a steeper k_{⊥}^{-4} spectrum at sub-Larmor scales, where k_{⊥} is the wave vector perpendicular to the mean field. We demonstrate the development of a nonthermal, power-law particle energy distribution f(E)∼E^{-α}, with an index α that decreases with increasing magnetization and increases with an increasing system size (relative to the characteristic Larmor radius). Our simulations indicate that turbulence can be a viable source of energetic particles in high-energy astrophysical systems, such as pulsar wind nebulae, if scalings asymptotically become insensitive to the system size.
authors.affiliation: JILA, University of Colorado and NIST, 440 UCB, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zhdankin
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrated Plasma Studies, Physics Department, University of Colorado, 390 UCB, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Gregory R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Werner
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrated Plasma Studies, Physics Department, University of Colorado, 390 UCB, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.|Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA.
authors.forename: Dmitri A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Uzdensky
authors.affiliation: JILA, University of Colorado and NIST, 440 UCB, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.|Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, 391 UCB, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Mitchell C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Begelman