Related papers: Particle acceleration in the driven relativistic r…
While relativistic magnetic reconnection in pair plasmas has emerged in recent years as a candidate for the origin of radiation from extreme astrophysical environments, the corresponding subrelativistic pair plasma regime has remained less…
The results of kinetic simulations of magnetic reconnection in Harris current sheets are analyzed. A range of guide fields is considered to study reconnection in plasmas characterized by different $\beta$ values, $\beta > m_e/m_i$. Both an…
Magnetic reconnection is often invoked as a source of high-energy particles, and in relativistic astrophysical systems it is regarded as a prime candidate for powering fast and bright flares. We present a novel analytical model - supported…
Results are presented of a first study of collisionless magnetic reconnection starting from a recently found exact nonlinear force-free Vlasov-Maxwell equilibrium. The initial state has a Harris sheet magnetic field profile in one direction…
Relativistic magnetic reconnection studies have focused on symmetric configurations so far, where the upstream plasma has identical properties on each side of the layer. The boundary layer between a relativistic jet and an accretion flow…
The magnetic reconnection process is studied in relativistic pair plasmas when the thermal and inertial properties of the magnetohydrodynamical fluid are included. We find that in both Sweet-Parker and Petschek relativistic scenarios there…
Using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, we study the evolution of a strongly magnetized plasma slab propagating into a finite density ambient medium. Like previous work, we find that the slab breaks into discrete magnetic pulses. The…
We report turbulence effects on magnetic reconnection in relativistic plasmas using 3-dimensional relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics simulations. We found reconnection rate became independent of the plasma resistivity due to…
Plasmoids -- magnetized quasi-circular structures formed self-consistently in reconnecting current sheets -- were previously considered to be the graveyards of energetic particles. In this paper, we demonstrate the important role of…
Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous process in astrophysical plasmas and an efficient mechanism for particle acceleration. Using 2.5D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations with a co-evolving fluid-particle framework, we investigate how…
Context: The strong electric fields associated with magnetic reconnection in solar flares are a plausible mechanism to accelerate populations of high energy, non-thermal particles. One such reconnection scenario occurs at a 3D magnetic null…
Magnetic reconnection in the relativistic regime has been proposed as an important process for the efficient production of nonthermal particles and high-energy emissions. Using fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate how…
Magnetic reconnection can explosively release magnetic energy when opposing magnetic fields merge and annihilate through a current sheet, driving plasma jets and accelerating non-thermal particle populations to high energy, in plasmas…
We undertake an investigation of particle acceleration in the context of non-linear electrodynamics. We deduce the maximum energy that an electron can gain in a non-linear density wave in a magnetised plasma, and we show that an electron…
We investigate the large scale evolution of a relativistic magnetic reconnection in an electron-positron pair plasma by a relativistic two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code. We introduce an inter-species friction force as an effective…
We perform two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of magnetic reconnection for various strengths of the guide field (perpendicular to the reversing field), in magnetically-dominated electron-positron plasmas. Magnetic reconnection…
The radiative acceleration of particles and the electrostatic potential fields that arise in low density plasmas hit by radiation produced by a transient, compact source are investigated. We calculate the dynamical evolution and asymptotic…
Rapid and luminous flares of non-thermal radiation observed in blazars require an efficient mechanism of energy dissipation and particle acceleration in relativistic active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets. Particle acceleration in relativistic…
The linear and non-linear evolution of a relativistic current sheet of pair ($e^{\pm}$) plasmas is investigated by three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. In a Harris configuration, it is obtained that the magnetic energy is fast…
First results are presented from kinetic numerical simulations of relativistic collisionless magnetic reconnection in pair plasma that include radiation reaction from both synchrotron and inverse Compton (IC) processes, motivated by…