Related papers: The microphysics of collisionless shock waves
Relativistic shocks are usually thought to occur in violent astrophysical explosions. These collisionless shocks are mediated by a plasma kinetic streaming instability, often loosely referred to as the Weibel instability, which generates…
In collisional fluids, a number of key processes rely on the frequency of binary collisions. Collisions seem necessary to generate a shock wave when two fluids collide fast enough, to fulfill the Rankine-Hugoniot relations, to establish an…
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…
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…
We explore analytically the structure of relativistic shock and solitary wave solutions in collisionless plasmas. In the wave frame of reference, a cold plasma is flowing from one end and impacting on a low velocity plasma. First we show…
Although the origin of cosmic rays (CRs) remains an open question, collisionless magnetized shock waves are widely regarded as key sites for particle acceleration. Recent theories further suggest that shock-shock collisions in stellar…
A collisionless shock wave is treated as a streaming plasma instability in the interstellar medium (ISM). We assume that in a steady state, this instability propagates through the ISM as a self-driven plasma instability, whereby the…
Particle acceleration in collisionless plasma systems is a central question in astroplasma and astroparticle physics. The structure of the acceleration regions, electron-ion energy equilibration, preacceleration of particles at shocks to…
In the Universe matter outside of stars and compact objects is mostly composed of collisionless plasma. The interaction of a supersonic plasma flow with an obstacle results in collisionless shocks that are often associated with intense…
The formation of non-relativistic collisionless shocks in laboratory with ultrahigh intensity lasers is studied via \emph{ab initio} multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The microphysics behind shock formation and dissipation,…
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…
Cosmological shock waves result from supersonic flow motions induced by hierarchical clustering of nonlinear structures in the universe. These shocks govern the nature of cosmic plasma through thermalization of gas and acceleration of…
The mechanism of diffusive Fermi acceleration at collisionless plasma shock waves is widely invoked in astrophysics to explain the appearance of non-thermal particle populations in a variety of environments, including sites of cosmic ray…
Non-relativistic collisionless shock waves are widespread in space and astrophysical plasmas and are known as efficient particle accelerators. However, our understanding of collisionless shocks, including their structure and the mechanisms…
The physics of collisionless shocks is a very broad topic which has been studied for more than five decades. However, there are a number of important issues which remain unresolved. The energy repartition amongst particle populations in…
Particle acceleration in collisionless shocks is believed to be responsible for the production of cosmic-rays over a wide range of energies, from few GeV to >10^{20}eV, as well as for the non-thermal emission of radiation from a wide…
The evolutionarity conditions for the MHD shock waves are considered within the framework of the 8-moment approximation for collisionless plasma with heat fluxes. In the general case, evolutionarity diagrams are obtained depending on the…
Gamma ray bursts are among the most energetic events in the known universe. A highly relativistic fireball is ejected. In most cases the burst itself is followed by an afterglow, emitted under deceleration as the fireball plunges through…
The nonlinear propagation of low-frequency circularly polarized waves in a magnetized dusty plasma is analyzed. It is found that wave steepening and shock formation can take place due to the presence of nonlinear quantum vacuum effects,…
The nonlinear dynamics of pulses in a two-temperature collisionless plasma with formation of dispersion shock waves is studied. An analytical description is given for arbitrary form of an initial disturbance with smooth enough density…