Related papers: Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Electron-Ion…
Electron acceleration has been optimized based on 3D PIC simulations of a short laser pulse interacting with low-density plasma targets to find the pulse propagation regime that maximizes the charge of high-energy electron bunches. This…
Energetic positrons have been observed in the interstellar medium, and high-energy positrons with relativistic energies up to approximately 1 TeV have been detected in Galactic cosmic rays. We conducted a study on the acceleration of…
What are the mechanisms of particle acceleration and radiation, as well as magnetic field build up and decay in relativistic shocks are open questions with important implications to various phenomena in high energy astrophysics. While the…
Electron acceleration to non-thermal energies in low Mach number (M<5) shocks is revealed by radio and X-ray observations of galaxy clusters and solar flares, but the electron acceleration mechanism remains poorly understood. Diffusive…
In this dissertation, a fully object-oriented, fully relativistic, multi-dimensional Particle-In-Cell code was developed and applied to answer key questions in plasma-based accelerator research. The simulations increase the understanding of…
Collisionless magnetic reconnection is a prime candidate to account for flare-like or steady emission, outflow launching, or plasma heating, in a variety of high-energy astrophysical objects, including ones with relativistic ion-electron…
We propose a new way of quick and very efficient acceleration of protons and/or electrons in relativistic bulk flows. The new mechanism takes advantage of conversion of particles from the charged state (protons or electrons/positrons) into…
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…
Plasma processes close to SNR shocks result in the amplification of magnetic fields and in the acceleration of electrons, injecting them into the diffusive acceleration mechanism. The acceleration of electrons and the B field amplification…
Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g.,Buneman, Weibel and other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks are responsible for particle…
We present the first laboratory observations of time-resolved electron and ion velocity distributions in forming, magnetized collisionless shocks. Thomson scattering of a probe laser beam was used to observe the interaction of a…
Plasma outflows from gamma-ray bursts (GRB), pulsar winds, relativistic jets, and ultra-intense laser targets radiate high energy photons. However, radiation damping is ignored in conventional PIC simulations. In this letter, we study the…
This work presents a model for generating nonthermal power-law tails of particles' energy probability density functions in turbulent collisionless plasmas, applicable to both non-relativistic and relativistic scenarios. We propose that…
We generate a tabletop pulsed relativistic electron beam at 100 Hz repetition rate from vacuum laser acceleration (VLA) by tightly focusing a radially polarized beam into a low-density gas. We demonstrate that strong longitudinal electric…
It is shown that two circularly polarised Alfv\'en waves that propagate along the ambient magnetic field in an uniform plasma trigger non oscillating electromagnetic field components when they cross each other. The non-oscilliating field…
Collisionless shock acceleration of protons and C$^{6+}$ ions has been achieved by the interaction of a 10$^{20}$ W/cm$^2$, 1 $\mu$m laser with a near-critical density plasma. Ablation of the initially solid density target by a secondary…
Electron accelerations at high Mach number collision-less shocks are investigated by means of two-dimensional electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell simulations with various Alfven Mach numbers, ion-to-electron mass ratios, and the upstream…
Electron and proton acceleration in three-dimensional electric and magnetic fields is studied through test particle simulations. The fields are obtained by a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulation of magnetic reconnection in slab…
We report the results of 1D particle-in-cell simulations of ultrarelativistic shock waves in proton-electron-positron plasmas. We consider magnetized shock waves, in which the upstream medium carries a large scale magnetic field, directed…
We present test-particle simulations of electrons during a nonlinear MHD simulation of a type-I edge localized mode (ELM) to explore the effect of an eruptive plasma filament on the kinetic level. The electrons are moderately heated and…