Superbubbles as Galactic PeVatrons: The Potential Role of Rapid Second-Order Fermi Acceleration

The origin of Galactic cosmic rays is still a mystery, in particular the sources and acceleration mechanism for cosmic rays with energies up to or beyond a PeV. Recently LHAASO has and H.E.S.S have shown that two gamma-ray sources associated with superbubbles created by young massive stellar clusters are likely PeVatrons. This has renewed the interest in the cosmic-ray acceleration processes in superbubbles. To study the possibility and conditions under which second-order Fermi acceleration can accelerate particles beyond PeV energies in superbubbles. An analytical equation is derived for the maximum energy a cosmic-ray particle can obtain as a function of acceleration duration. The maximum energy depends critically on the diffusion coefficient D and the Alfv\'en velocity, VA. The analytical solutions for the acceleration time scale shows that second-order Fermi acceleration can be just as efficient as diffusive shock acceleration, when comparable relevant velocities are used-i.e. the Alfv\'en velocity or shock velocity. The probable values for the diffusion coefficient and Alv\'en speed are studied for two likely PeVatron regions, HESS J1646-458 associated with Westerlund 1, and the Cygnus Cocoon, associated Cyg OB2. It is shown that within a typical stellar cluster time scale of 1-5 Myr cosmic-rays can be accelerated to > 10¹⁵ eV, provided that VA > 300 km/s, and the diffusion coefficient is D ~ 10²⁶ cm²/s at 100 TeV. This suggests that second-order Fermi acceleration in superbubbles should be considered as a possible source of Galactic cosmic rays up to, or beyond a PeV.