Confinement and anisotropy of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays in isotropic plasma wave turbulence

Abstract

We have investigated the implications of isotropically distributed interstellar magnetohydrodynamic plasma waves on the scattering mean free path and the spatial anisotropy of high-energy cosmic rays. We demonstrate a drastic modification of the energy dependence of both cosmic ray transport parameters compared to previous calculations that have assumed that the plasma waves propagate only parallel or antiparallel to the ordered magnetic field (slab turbulence).