TURBULENCE AND MAGNETIC FIELD AMPLIFICATION IN SUPERNOVA REMNANTS: INTERACTIONS BETWEEN A STRONG SHOCK WAVE AND MULTIPHASE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM

Abstract

We examine magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the propagation of a strong shock wave through the interstellar two-phase medium composed of small-scale cloudlets and diffuse warm neutral medium in two-dimensional geometry. The preshock two-phase medium is provided as a natural consequence of the thermal instability that is expected to be ubiquitous in the interstellar medium. We show that the shock-compressed shell becomes turbulent owing to the preshock density inhomogeneity, and magnetic field amplification takes place in the shell. The maximum field strength is determined by the condition that plasma β ∼ 1, which gives the field strength on the order of 1 mG in the case of shock velocity ∼10 3 km s −1 . The strongly magnetized region shows filamentary and knotlike structures in two-dimensional simulations. The spatial scale of the regions with a magnetic field of ∼1 mG in our simulation is roughly 0.05 pc, which is comparable to the spatial scale of the X-ray hot spots recently discovered in supernova remnants where the magnetic field strength is indicated to be amplified up to the order of 1 mG. This result may also suggest that the turbulent region with a locally strong magnetic field is expected to be spread out in the region with frequent supernova explosions, such as in the Galactic center and starburst galaxies.