Related papers: Perpendicular relativistic shocks in magnetized pa…
Shocks in relativistically hot plasmas are thought to exist in various high-energy astrophysical phenomena, but it is not clear how relativistic collisionless shocks are formed, whether particles are accelerated by the shock as in the case…
Particle acceleration and heating at mildly relativistic magnetized shocks in electron-ion plasma are investigated with unprecedentedly high-resolution two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations that include ion-scale shock rippling.…
Relativistic radiation mediated shocks (RRMS) likely form in prodigious cosmic explosions. The structure and emission of such shocks is regulated by copious production of electron-positron pairs inside the shock transition layer. It has…
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…
It is generally accepted that magnetic fields generated in the nonlinear development of the transverse Weibel instability provide effective collisionality in unmagnetized collisionless shocks. Recently, extensive two and three dimensional…
Monte-Carlo computations for highly relativistic parallel shock particle acceleration are presented for upstream flow gamma factors, $\Gamma=(1-V_{1}^{2}/c^{2})^{-0.5}$ with values between 5 and $10^{3}$. The results show that the spectral…
Fully kinetic two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations are used to study electron acceleration at high-Mach-number nonrelativistic perpendicular shocks. SNR shocks are mediated by the Weibel instability which is excited because of an…
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.…
Shock waves constitute discontinuities in matter which are relevant in studying the plasma behaviour in astrophysical scenarios and in heavy-ion collision. They can produce conical emission in relativistic collisions and are also thought to…
The relativistic wind of obliquely-rotating pulsars consists of toroidal stripes of opposite magnetic field polarity, separated by current sheets of hot plasma. By means of two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we…
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…
We calculate the structure of a relativistic shock wave in which the internal energy of the shocked fluid is radiated away on a time scale much shorter than the characteristic shock propagation time. The shock is assumed to move through a…
Relativistic collisionless shocks are believed to be efficient particle accelerators. Nonlinear outcome of the interaction of accelerated particles that run ahead of the shock, the so-called "precursor", with the unperturbed plasma of the…
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…
Perpendicular collisionless shocks propagating into partially ionized plasmas are investigated by two-dimensional hybrid particle simulations. It is shown that some neutral particles leak into the upstream region from the downstream region,…
Collisionless shocks follow the Rankine-Hugoniot jump conditions to a good approximation. However, for a shock propagating parallel to a magnetic field, magnetohydrodynamics states that the shock properties are independent of the field…
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…
By means of two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate the process of driven magnetic reconnection at the termination shock of relativistic striped flows. In pulsar winds and in magnetar-powered relativistic…
Relativistic shocks are present in all high-energy astrophysical processes involving relativistic plasma outflows interacting with their ambient medium. While a well understood process in the context of relativistic hydrodynamics and ideal…
We perform particle-in-cell simulations of perpendicular nonrelativistic collisionless shocks to study electron heating and pre-acceleration for parameters that permit extrapolation to the conditions at young supernova remnants. Our…