Related papers: Emergence of MHD structures in a collisionless PIC…
Shocks waves are a ubiquitous feature of many astrophysical plasma systems, and an important process for energy dissipation and transfer. The physics of these shock waves are frequently treated/modeled as a collisional, fluid MHD…
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…
Collisionless, turbulent plasmas surround the Earth, from the magnetosphere to the intergalactic medium, and the fluctuations within them affect nearly every field in the space sciences, from space weather forecasts to theories of galaxy…
Particle in cell (PIC) simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection are presented that demonstrate that the electron dissipation region develops a distinct two-scale structure along the outflow direction. The length of the electron…
We examine with a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation the collision of two equally dense clouds of cold pair plasma. The clouds interpenetrate until instabilities set in, which heat up the plasma and trigger the formation of a pair of shocks.…
In this paper, we study shock structures of collisionless shocks in partially ionized plasmas by means of two-dimensional hybrid simulations, where the shock is a perpendicular shock with shock velocity Vsh ~ 40 Va ~ 1333 km/s and the…
By means of a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation, we study the interaction between a uniform magnetized ambient electron-proton plasma at rest and an unmagnetized pair plasma, which we inject at one simulation boundary with a mildly…
A shock tube problem is solved numerically by using one-dimensional full particle-in-cell simulations under the condition that a relatively tenuous and weakly magnetized plasma is continuously pushed by a relatively dense and strongly…
Perpendicular relativistic ($\gamma_0=10$) shocks in magnetized pair plasmas are investigated using two dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations. A systematic survey, from unmagnetized to strongly magnetized shocks, is presented accurately…
Collisionless, magnetized turbulence offers a promising framework for the generation of non-thermal high-energy particles in various astrophysical sites. Yet, the detailed mechanism that governs particle acceleration has remained subject to…
A pair of curved shocks in a collisionless plasma is examined with a two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. The shocks are created by the collision of two electron-ion clouds at a speed that exceeds everywhere the threshold…
Weakly collisional space plasmas are rarely in local thermal equilibrium and often exhibit non-Maxwellian electron and ion velocity distributions that lead to the growth of microinstabilities, that is, enhanced electric and magnetic fields…
Laboratory plasmas in open magnetic geometries can be found in many different applications such as (1) Scrape-Of-Layer (SOL) and divertor regions in toroidal confinement fusion devices (\approx1-10^2\hspace{1mm}\mathrm{eV}), (2) linear…
Ablating a target with an ultraintense laser pulse can create a cloud of collisionless plasma. A density ramp forms, in which the plasma density decreases and the ion's mean speed increases with distance from the plasma source. Its width…
The amplification and maintenance of the observed magnetic fields in the ICM are usually attributed to the turbulent dynamo action. This is generally derived employing a collisional MHD model. However, in the ICM the ion mean free path…
Shocks act to convert incoming supersonic flows to heat, and in collisionless plasmas the shock layer forms on kinetic plasma scales through collective electromagnetic effects. These collisionless shocks have been observed in many space and…
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…
There are many interesting physical processes which involve the generation of high density plasmas in large volumes. However, when modeling these systems numerically, the large densities and volumes present a significant computational…
Relativistic collisionless shocks are associated with efficient particle acceleration when propagating into weakly magnetized homogeneous media; as the magnetization increases, particle acceleration becomes suppressed. We demonstrate that…
Previous studies of phase mixing of ion cyclotron (IC), Alfv\'enic, waves in the collisionless regime have established the generation of parallel electric field and hence acceleration of electrons in the regions of transverse density…