Related papers: Non-Maxwellian Proton Velocity Distributions in No…
Strong shocks propagating into a partially ionized medium are often associated with optical Balmer lines. This emission is due to impact excitation of neutral hydrogen by hot protons and electrons in the shocked gas. The structure of such…
Many fast supernova remnant shocks show spectra dominated by Balmer lines. The H$\alpha$ profiles have a narrow component explained by direct excitations and a thermally Doppler broadened component due to atoms that undergo charge exchange…
Non-radiative shocks accelerate particles and heat astrophysical plasmas. While supernova remnants are the most well-studied example, neutron star (NS) bow shocks are also non-radiative and Balmer-dominated. NS bow shocks are likely…
Linearly polarized Balmer line emissions from supernova remnant shocks are studied taking into account the energy loss of the shock owing to the production of nonthermal particles. The polarization degree depends on the downstream…
In astronomical environments, the high-temperature emission of plasma mainly depends on ion charge states, which requires accurate analysis of the ionization and recombination processes. For various phenomena involving energetic particles,…
Balmer emission may be a powerful diagnostic tool to test the paradigm of cosmic ray (CR) acceleration in young supernova remnant (SNR) shocks. The width of the broad Balmer line is a direct indicator of the downstream plasma temperature.…
We present the non-linear theory of shock acceleration applied to SNRs expanding into partially neutral plasma. Using this theory we show how the Balmer lines detected from young SNRs can be used to test the efficiency of shocks in the…
We present an observational and theoretical study of the optical emission from nonradiative shocks in three supernova remnants: the Cygnus Loop, RCW 86 and Tycho. The spectra of these shocks are dominated by collisionally excited hydrogen…
The departure of particle distributions from the Maxwellian is commonly observed in space plasmas. These non-Maxwellian distributions which are typical for plasmas that are not in thermal equilibrium, can be modeled with…
Nonthermal velocity distributions with much greater tails than the Maxwellian have been observed for radical atoms in plasmas for a long time. Historically, such velocity distributions have been modeled by a two-temperature Maxwell…
The pickup protons originate as a result of the ionization of hydrogen atoms in the supersonic solar wind, forming the suprathermal component of protons in the heliosphere. While picked by the heliospheric magnetic field and convected into…
The shocks of several young supernova remnants (SNR) are often associated with very thin optical filaments dominated by Balmer emission resulting from charge-exchange and collisional excitation between neutral Hydrogen from the interstellar…
Balmer-dominated shocks in supernova remnants (SNRs) produce strong hydrogen lines with a two-component profile composed of a narrow contribution from cold upstream hydrogen atoms, and a broad contribution from hydrogen atoms that have…
Collisionless shock waves in supernova remnants and the solar wind heat electrons less effectively than they heat ions, as is predicted by kinetic simulations. However, the values of T$_e$/T$_p$ inferred from the H alpha profiles of…
We report the results of 1D particle-in-cell simulations of ultrarelativistic shock waves in proton-electron-positron plasmas. We consider magnetized shock waves, in which the upstream medium carries a large scale magnetic field, directed…
Particle velocity distributions measured in the weakly collisional solar wind are frequently found to be non-Maxwellian, but how these non-Maxwellian distributions impact the physics of plasma turbulence in the solar wind remains…
We calculate the proton distribution function due to heating by subsonic (Alfvenic) turbulence in a weakly magnetized collisionless plasma. The distribution function is nonthermal. For non-relativistic energies, it is an exponential of the…
We present integral-field spectroscopic observations with the VIMOS-IFU at the VLT of fast (2000-3000 km/s) Balmer-dominated shocks surrounding the northwestern rim of the remnant of supernova 1006. The high spatial and spectral resolution…
Context: Observation of Balmer lines from the region around the forward shock of supernova remnants may provide precious information on the shock dynamics and on the efficiency of particle acceleration at the shock. Aims: We calculate the…
Radiative transfer in hydrogen lines in supernova remnant (SNR) shock waves is studied taking into account the population of the hydrogen atom 2s-state. Measurements of Balmer line emission, especially of H~$\alpha$, are often relied upon…