Related papers: Microwave View on Particle Acceleration in Flares
The non-thermal acceleration of electrons and ions at an oblique, non-relativistic shock is studied using large scale particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations in one spatial dimension. Physical parameters are selected to highlight the role of…
A comprehensive review is given of the various processes proposed for accelerating particles by shocks to high energies. These energies are limited by several bounds: the non-relativistic nature of the heliospheric collisionless shocks to…
First order Fermi acceleration at astrophysical shocks is often invoked as a mechanism for the generation of non-thermal particles. This mechanism is especially simple in the approximation that the accelerated particles behave like test…
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…
One of the main features of astrophysical shocks is their ability to accelerate particles to extremely high energies. The leading acceleration mechanism, the diffusive shock acceleration is reviewed. It is demonstrated that its efficiency…
The existence and extent of non-thermal phenomena in galaxy clusters is now well established. A key question in our understanding of these phenomena is the origin of the relativistic electrons which may be constrained by the modelling of…
Stochastic heating is a well-known mechanism through which magnetized particles may be energized by low-frequency electromagnetic waves. In its simplest version, under spatially homogeneous conditions, it is known to be operative only above…
In high-energy astrophysics, interpreting observed spectra hinges on understanding the competition between energy gains and radiative losses. To progress along these lines, we report on particle-in-cell simulations of particle acceleration…
A property common to several different astrophysical sources of high-energy gamma-rays is the presence of bulk motion at relativistic speed. The intrinsic spectra of the nonthermal radiating particles also show interesting similarities,…
Recently, in a few case studies we demonstrated that gyrosynchrotron microwave emission can be detected directly from the acceleration region when the trapped electron component is insignificant. For the statistical study reported here, we…
This research was motivated by the recent observations indicating very strong magnetic fields at some supernova remnant shocks, which suggests in-situ generation of magnetic turbulence. The dissertation presents a numerical model of…
Solar flares are efficient particle accelerators with a large fraction of released magnetic energy (10-50%) converted into energetic particles such as hard X-ray producing electrons. This energy transfer process is not well constrained,…
Observational evidence in space and astrophysical plasmas with long collisional mean free path suggests that more massive charged particles may be preferentially heated. One possible mechanism for this is the turbulent cascade of energy…
Non-thermal power-law distribution functions are ubiquitous in astrophysical, space, and laboratory kinetic plasmas, but their origin remains unclear. A related puzzle is the temperature inversion of the solar corona. We show that these…
I present a review of nonthermal processes in the large scale structure of the universe. After examining the properties of cosmological shock waves and their role as particle accelerators, I discuss the main observational facts, from radio…
The partition of turbulent heating between ions and electrons in radiatively inefficient accretion flows plays a crucial role in determining the observational appearance of accreting black holes. Modeling this partition is, however, a…
The acceleration of charged particles at astrophysical collisionless shock waves is one of the best studied processes for the energization of particles to ultrarelativistic energies, required by multifrequency observations in a variety of…
Nonthermal radiation is observed from clusters of galaxies in the radio, hard X-rays, and possibly in the soft X-ray/UV bands. While it is known that radiative processes related to nonthermal electrons are responsible for this radiation,…
We review basic theoretical concepts in particle acceleration, with particular emphasis on processes likely to occur in regions of magnetic reconnection. Several new developments are discussed, including detailed studies of reconnection in…
We expand the off-resonant scattering theory for particle diffusion in magnetized current filaments that can be typically compared to astrophysical jets, including active galactic nucleus jets. In a high plasma beta region where the…