Related papers: Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Plasma Turbu…
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…
Observational evidence in space and astrophysical plasmas with long collisional mean free path suggests that more massive charged particles may be preferentially heated. One possible mechanism for this is the turbulent cascade of energy…
Magnetized jets in GRBs and AGNs are thought to be efficient accelerators of particles, however, the process responsible for the acceleration is still a matter of active debate. In this work, we study the kink-instability in non-rotating…
The results of numerical simulations of the Hasegawa-Wakatani equation demonstrate that, similarly to decaying turbulence in 2D fluids, at a small electron adiabaticity parameter, the resistive-drift-wave (RDW) turbulence is dominated by…
Young pulsars produce relativistic winds which interact with matter ejected during the supernova explosion and the surrounding interstellar gas. Particles are accelerated to very high energies somewhere in the pulsar winds or at the shocks…
The equatorial current sheet in pulsar magnetospheres is often regarded as an ideal site for particle acceleration via relativistic reconnection. Using 2D spherical particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate particle acceleration in the…
Plasma instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel and other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks may be responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle…
Three-dimensional special relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations are performed to investigate properties of the downstream turbulence generated by the interaction between a relativistic shock wave and multiple clumps. We analyze the…
Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in the Universe. Extragalactic disks, halos and clusters have consistently been shown, via diffuse radio-synchrotron emission and Faraday rotation measurements, to exhibit magnetic field strengths ranging from…
Particle acceleration at magnetized purely perpendicular relativistic shocks in electron-ion plasmas are studied by means of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Magnetized shocks with the upstream bulk Lorentz factor $\gamma_1 \gg…
We discuss the physics of stochastic particle acceleration in relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, combining numerical simulations of test-particle acceleration in synthetic wave turbulence spectra with detailed analytical…
We calculate the proton distribution function due to heating by subsonic (Alfvenic) turbulence in a weakly magnetized collisionless plasma. The distribution function is nonthermal. For non-relativistic energies, it is an exponential of the…
We present fully kinetic simulations of driven 2D turbulence in a relativistic plasma, designed for the first time to induce a fast magnetosonic cascade. As the driving strength increases, turbulence transitions from a weak wave-dominated…
In a strongly magnetized, magnetically dominated relativistic plasma, Alfv\'enic turbulence can extend to scales much smaller than the particle inertial scales. It leads to an energy cascade somewhat analogous to inertial- or…
The author presents a model for variability of the flux and polarization of blazars in which turbulent plasma flowing at a relativistic speed down a jet crosses a standing conical shock. The shock compresses the plasma and accelerates…
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…
Alfv\'enic turbulence is an effective mechanism for particle acceleration in strongly magnetized, relativistic plasma. In this study, we investigate a scenario where turbulent plasma is influenced by a strong guide magnetic field, resulting…
Recently, particle in cell (PIC) simulations have shown that relativistic turbulence in collisionless plasmas can result in an equilibrium particle distribution function where turbulent heating is balanced by radiative cooling of electrons.…
Galaxy clusters are the most massive constituents of the large-scale structure of the Universe. While the hot thermal gas that pervades galaxy clusters is relatively well understood through observations with X-ray satellites, our…
Turbulence in space plasmas usually exhibits two regimes separated by a spectral break that divides the so called inertial and kinetic ranges. Large scale magnetic fluctuations are dominated by non-linear MHD wave-wave interactions…