Related papers: Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Electron-Ion…
Particles are accelerated to very high, non-thermal energies in solar and space plasma environments. While energy spectra of accelerated electrons often exhibit a power law, it remains unclear how electrons are accelerated to high energies…
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma process that is thought to play a key role in the production of nonthermal particles associated with explosive phenomena in space physics and astrophysics. Experiments at high-energy-density…
The past decade has seen an outstanding development of nonthermal particle acceleration in magnetic reconnection in magnetically-dominated systems, with clear signatures of power-law energy distributions as a common outcome of…
Magnetized collisionless shocks drive particle acceleration broadly in space and astrophysics. We perform the first large-scale particle-in-cell simulations with realistic laboratory parameters (density, temperature, and velocity) to…
A numerical study on ion acceleration in electrostatic shock waves is presented, with the aim of determining the best plasma configuration to achieve quasi-monoenergetic ion beams in laser-driven systems. It was recently shown that tailored…
We present the particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation results of the interaction of a high-energy lepton plasma flow with background electron-proton plasma and focus on the acceleration processes of the protons. It is found that the acceleration…
Two charge- and current neutral plasma beams are modelled with a one-dimensional PIC simulation. The beams are uniform and unbounded. The relative speed between both beams is 0.4c. One beam is composed of electrons and protons and one out…
Relativistic sources, e.g. gamma-ray bursts, pulsar wind nebulae and powerful active galactic nuclei produce relativistic outflows that lead to the formation of collisionless shock waves, where particle acceleration is thought to take…
The acceleration of charged particles by interplanetary shocks (IPs) can drain a non-negligible fraction of the plasma pressure. In this study, we have selected 17 IPs observed in-situ at $1\,\text{au}$ by the Advanced Composition Explorer…
Electron acceleration associated with various plasma kinetic instabilities in a nonrelativistic, very-high-Alfv\'en Mach-number ($M_A \sim 45$) shock is revealed by means of a two-dimensional fully kinetic PIC simulation. Electromagnetic…
Nonrelativistic electrostatic unmagnetized shocks are frequently observed in laboratory plasmas and they are likely to exist in astrophysical plasmas. Their maximum speed, expressed in units of the ion acoustic speed far upstream of the…
Plasma-based acceleration schemes have attracted sustained interest as a pathway toward compact particle accelerators, owing to the large electric fields supported by plasmas. Although recent studies have demonstrated the excitation of…
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…
The ion acceleration driven by a laser pulse at intensity $I = 10^{20} - 10^{22} $W/cm$^2\times(\mu$m$/\lambda)^2$ from a double layer target is investigated with multi-parametric Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations. For targets with a wide…
In three-dimensional electromagnetic configurations that result from unstable resistive tearing modes particles can efficiently be accelerated to relativistic energies. To prove this resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations are used as…
We investigate the acceleration of charged particles (both electrons and protons) at collisionless shocks predicted to exist in the vicinity of solar flares. The existence of standing termination shocks has been examined by flare models and…
Relativistic magnetic turbulence has been proposed as a process for producing nonthermal particles in high-energy astrophysics. Particle energization may be contributed by both magnetic reconnection and turbulent fluctuations, but their…
New exact results are obtained for relativistic acceleration of test positive ions in the non-Boltzmann laminar zone of a planar electron sheath evolving from an initially mono-energetic electron distribution. The electron dynamics is…
We consider the stochastic acceleration of particles which results from resonant interactions with plasma waves in black hole magnetospheres. We calculate acceleration rates and escape time scales for protons and electrons resonating with…
We measure the emission of energetic electrons from the interaction between ultrashort laser pulses and a solid density plasma in the relativistic regime. We detect an electron beam that only appears with few-cycle pulses (< 10 fs) and…