Related papers: Collisionless Weibel shocks: full formation mechan…
Ab-initio numerical study of collisionless shocks in electron-ion unmagnetized plasmas is performed with fully relativistic particle in cell simulations. The main properties of the shock are shown, focusing on the implications for particle…
The course of non-thermal electron ejection in relativistic unmagnetized electron-ion shocks is investigated by performing self-consistent particle-in-cell simulations. The shocks are excited through the injection of relativistic jet into…
We present two-dimensional hybrid kinetic/magnetohydrodynamic simulations of planned laser-ablation experiments in the Large Plasma Device (LAPD). Our results, based on parameters which have been validated in previous experiments, show that…
Shock waves propagating in collisionless heliospheric and astrophysical plasmas have been studied extensively over the decades. One prime motivation is to understand the nonthermal particle acceleration at shocks. Although the theory of…
The localized deposition of the energy of a laser pulse, as it ablates a solid target, introduces high thermal pressure gradients in the plasma. The thermal expansion of this laser-heated plasma into the ambient medium (ionized residual…
We model relativistically colliding plasma by PIC simulations in one and two spatial dimensions, taking an ion-to-electron mass ratio of 400. Energy dissipation by a wave precursor of mixed polarity and different densities of the colliding…
A careful study of plasma-material interactions is essential to understand and improve the operation of devices where plasma contacts a wall. Key contributions of this work include (i) novel continuum kinetic algorithms with novel boundary…
Cosmological shock waves are induced during hierarchical formation of large-scale structure in the universe. Like most astrophysical shocks, they are collisionless, since they form in the tenuous intergalactic medium through electromagnetic…
The radiation from afterglows of gamma-ray bursts is generated in the collisionless plasma shock interface between a relativistic outflow and a quiescent circum-burst medium. The two main ingredients responsible for the radiation are…
In this second paper of a series, we discuss the dynamics of a plasma entering the precursor of an unmagnetized, relativistic collisionless pair shock. We discuss how this background plasma is decelerated and heated through its interaction…
We discuss 3D simulations of relativistic collisionless shocks in electron-positron pair plasmas using the particle-in-cell (PIC) method. The shock structure is mainly controlled by the shock's magnetization ("sigma" parameter). We…
The radiation from afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRB) is generated in collisionless plasma shocks. The two main ingredients behind the radiation are high-energy, non-thermal electrons and a strong magnetic field. I argue that in order to…
Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., the Buneman instability, two-streaming instability, and the Weibel instability) created in the shocks are…
Collisionless plasma shock theory, which applies for example to the afterglow of gamma ray bursts, still contains key issues that are poorly understood. In this paper we study charged particle dynamics in a highly relativistic collisionless…
This paper examines the mechanism of internal shocks in opaque relativistic outflows, in particular in cosmological gamma-ray bursts. The shocks produce neutrino emission and affect the observed photospheric radiation from the explosion.…
The physics of collisionless relativistic shocks with a moderate magnetization is presented. Micro-physics is relevant to explain the most energetic radiative phenomena of Nature, namely that of the termination shock of Gamma Ray Bursts. A…
For parameters that are applicable to the conditions at young supernova remnants, we present results of 2D3V particle-in-cell simulations of a non-relativistic plasma shock with a large-scale perpendicular magnetic field inclined at 45-deg…
While the front of a fluid shock is a few mean-free-paths thick, the front of a collisionless shock can be orders of magnitude thinner. By bridging between a collisional and a collisionless formalism, we assess the transition between these…
Colliding collisionless shocks appear in a great variety of astrophysical phenomena and are thought to be possible sources of particle acceleration in the Universe. To investigate the detailed dynamics of this phenomenon, we have performed…
Filamentation due to the growth of a Weibel-type instability was observed in the interaction of a pair of counter-streaming, ablatively-driven plasma flows, in a supersonic, collisionless regime relevant to astrophysical collisionless…