Speaker
Description
Understanding how cosmic rays attain their very high energies remains one of the key open problems in astrophysics. In this talk, I will discuss recent progress on particle acceleration in turbulent, magnetized plasmas, focusing on environments such as magnetized winds, jets, and black hole coronae. I will present results from first-principles particle-in-cell simulations that reveal how magnetized turbulence drives efficient nonthermal acceleration, generating power-law energy distributions for ions and electrons, along with pronounced pitch-angle anisotropies in the electrons. Particular emphasis will be placed on the interplay between turbulence intermittency, magnetic reconnection, and the role of magnetic field curvature in energizing cosmic rays. These results offer a pathway toward interpreting high-energy astrophysical observations through the lens of kinetic plasma processes.
