English

Density jump as a function of magnetic field strength for parallel collisionless shocks with anisotropic upstream pressure

Plasma Physics 2023-03-08 v1 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Solar and Stellar Astrophysics Geophysics

Abstract

The properties of collisionless shocks are frequently assessed in the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) model. Yet, in a collisionless plasma, an ambient magnetic field can sustain a stable anisotropy in the upstream or the downstream, resulting in a departure from the MHD predicted behavior. We present a model allowing to derive the downstream anisotropy, hence the shock density jump, in terms of the upstream quantities. For simplicity, the case of a parallel shock in pair plasma is considered. Contrary to previous works where the upstream was assumed isotropic, here the upstream anisotropy A=T/TA=T_\perp/T_\parallel is a free parameter. The strong sonic shock regime is formally identical to the isotropic upstream case. Yet, for intermediate sonic Mach numbers, a variety of behaviors appear as a result of the anisotropy of the upstream.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2302.06521,
  title  = {Density jump as a function of magnetic field strength for parallel collisionless shocks with anisotropic upstream pressure},
  author = {Antoine Bret},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.06521},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

To appear in MNRAS, 8 pages, 6 figures