Related papers: Cross-scale coupling at a perpendicular collisionl…
In this thesis different numerical methods, as well as applications of the methods to a number of current problems in relativistic astrophysics, are presented. In the first part the theoretical foundation and numerical implementation of a…
We study electrical excitation of nonlinear plasma waves in heterostructures with two-dimensional electron channels and with split gates, and the propagation of these waves using hydrodynamic equations for electron transport coupled with…
To expand on recent work, we introduce collisional terms in the analysis of the warm ion-electron, two-fluid equations for a homogeneous plasma at rest. Consequently, the plasma is now described by six variables: the magnetisation, the…
Collisionless shocks can exhibit non-stationary behavior even under steady upstream conditions, forming a complex transition region. Ion phase-space holes, linked to shock self-reformation and surface ripples, are a signature of this…
Seventy crossings of the Earths bow shock by the THEMIS satellites have been used to study thermal electron heating in collisionless, quasi-perpendicular shocks. It was found that the temperature increase of thermal electrons differed from…
Adiabatic and non-adiabatic electron dynamics have been proposed to explain electron heating across collisionless shocks. We analyze the evolution of the suprathermal electrons across 310 quasi-perpendicular shocks with $1.7<M_A<48$ using…
Perpendicular relativistic ($\gamma_0=10$) shocks in magnetized pair plasmas are investigated using two dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations. A systematic survey, from unmagnetized to strongly magnetized shocks, is presented accurately…
The overtaking collisions of ion-acoustic solitons (IASs) in presence of trapping effects of electrons are studied based on a fully kinetic simulation approach. The method is able to provide all the kinetic details of the process alongside…
The complex interaction between shocks and plasma turbulence is extremely important to address crucial features of energy conversion in a broad range of astrophysical systems. We study the interaction between a supercritical, perpendicular…
Collisionless shocks are loosely defined as shocks where the transition between pre-and post-shock states happens on a length scale much shorter than the collisional mean free path. In the absence of collision to enforce thermal equilibrium…
The energy partition in high Mach number collisionless shock waves is central to a wide range of high-energy astrophysical environments. We present a new theoretical model for electron heating that accounts for the energy exchange between…
Various phase transitions in models for coupled charge-density waves are investigated by means of the $\epsilon$-expansion, mean-field theory, and Monte Carlo simulations. At zero temperature the effective action for the system with…
Recent X-ray observations of merger shocks in galaxy clusters have shown that the post-shock plasma is two-temperature, with the protons hotter than the electrons. By means of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we study the…
We explore electron pre-acceleration at high Mach-number nonrelativistic perpendicular shocks at, e.g., young supernova remnants, which are a prerequisite of further acceleration to very high energies via diffusive shock acceleration. Using…
In this review we discuss some observational aspects and theoretical models of astrophysical collisionless shocks in partly ionized plasma with the presence of non-thermal components. A specific feature of fast strong collisionless shocks…
Large-amplitude electrostatic fluctuations are routinely observed by spacecraft upon traversal of collisionless shocks in the heliosphere. Kinetic simulations of shocks have struggled to reproduce the amplitude of such fluctuations,…
Based on Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations from the Earth's bow shock, we have identified two plasma heating processes that operate at quasi-perpendicular shocks. Ions are subject to stochastic heating in a process controlled by…
Intense laser-plasma interactions are an essential tool for the laboratory study of ion acceleration at a collisionless shock. With two-dimensional particle-in-cell calculations of a multicomponent plasma we observe two electrostatic…
Explosive phenomena are known to trigger a wealth of shocks in warm plasma environments, including the solar chromosphere and molecular clouds where the medium consists of both ionised and neutral species. Partial ionisation is critical in…
The analysis of Balmer-dominated optical spectra from non-radiative (adiabatic) SNRs has shown that the ratio of the electron to proton temperature temperature at the blast wave is close to unity at v_s <= 400 km/s, but declines sharply…