Related papers: Relativistic particle acceleration in developing A…
Electron motion in an oblique shock wave is studied by means of a one-dimensional, relativistic, electromagnetic, particle simulation code with full ion and electron dynamics. It is found that an oblique shock can produce electrons with…
A new electron acceleration mechanism is identified that develops when a relativistically intense laser irradiates the wedge of an over-dense plasma. This induces a diffracted electromagnetic wave with a significant longitudinal electric…
Particle acceleration at magnetized purely perpendicular relativistic shocks in electron-ion plasmas are studied by means of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Magnetized shocks with the upstream bulk Lorentz factor $\gamma_1 \gg…
A scheme for fast, compact, and controllable acceleration of heavy particles in vacuum is proposed, in which two counterpropagating lasers with variable frequencies drive a beat-wave structure with variable phase velocity, thus allowing for…
A plasma velocity shear layer and/or a tangential flow discontinuity provide conditions allowing for energetic particle acceleration. We review such acceleration processes acting both in non-relativistic and in relativistic flows. In…
This paper summarizes recent progresses in our theoretical understanding of particle acceleration at relativistic shock waves and it discusses two salient consequences: (1) the maximal energy of accelerated particles; (2) the impact of the…
Shock acceleration is considered one of the most important mechanisms for the acceleration of astrophysical energetic particles. In this work, we calculate the trajectories of a large number of test charged particles accurately in a…
Magnetic Reconnection is an efficient and fast acceleration mechanism by means of direct electric field acceleration parallel to the magnetic field. Thus, acceleration of particles in reconnection regions is a very important topic in plasma…
Direct evidence for in situ particle acceleration mechanisms in the inter-galactic-medium (IGM) is provided by the diffuse Mpc--scale synchrotron emissions observed from galaxy clusters. It has been proposed that MHD turbulence, generated…
As one of the leading acceleration mechanisms in laser-driven underdense plasmas, direct laser acceleration (DLA) is capable of producing high-energy-density electron beams in a plasma channel for many applications. However, the mechanism…
Two-dimensional particle simulations of a relativistic Harris current sheet of pair plasmashave demonstrated that the system is unstable to the relativistic drift kink instability (RDKI) and that a new kind of acceleration process takes…
Plasma instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel and other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks may be responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle…
The interaction between a thin foil target and a circularly polarized laser light injected along an external magnetic field is investigated numerically by particle-in-cell simulations. A standing wave appears at the front surface of the…
We present results from particle-in-cell simulations of driven turbulence in magnetized, collisionless, and relativistic pair plasma. We find that fluctuations are consistent with the classical $k_\perp^{-5/3}$ magnetic energy spectrum at…
This paper extends our earlier work on the acceleration of low-energy electrons by plasma turbulence to include the effects of finite temperature of the plasma. We consider the resonant interaction of thermal electrons with the whole…
We discuss the generic characteristics of stochastic particle acceleration by a fully developed turbulence spectrum and show that resonant interactions of particles with high speed waves dominate the acceleration process. To produce the…
The acceleration of energetic particle transport in high amplitude magnetosonic and Alfvenic turbulence is considered using the method of Monte Carlo particle simulations, involving integration of particle equations of motion. We derive the…
A cosmic acceleration mechanism is introduced which is based on the wakefields excited by the Alfven shocks in a relativistically flowing plasma, where the energy gain per distance of a test particle is Lorentz invariant. We show that there…
Stochastic particle acceleration in turbulent plasmas plays a key role in shaping high-energy emission from relativistic outflows, such as those in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and microquasars. While traditional Fermi-II models provide a…
Magnetized turbulence and magnetic reconnection are often invoked to explain the nonthermal emission observed from a wide variety of astrophysical sources. By means of fully-kinetic 2D and 3D PIC simulations, we investigate the interplay…