Related papers: PIC Simulation Methods for Cosmic Radiation and Pl…
Many problems in astrophysics involve relativistic outflows. The plasma dynamics in these scenarios is critical to determine the conditions for the self-consistent evolution of the fields and particle acceleration. Advances in computer…
There is an observational correlation between astrophysical shocks and non-thermal particle distributions extending to high energies. As a first step toward investigating the possible feedback of these particles on the shock at the…
Kinetic plasma processes, such as magnetic reconnection, collisionless shocks, and turbulence, are fundamental to the dynamics of astrophysical and laboratory plasmas. Simulating these processes often requires particle-in-cell (PIC)…
Cosmic-ray acceleration processes in astrophysical plasmas are often investigated with fully-kinetic or hybrid kinetic numerical simulations, which enable us to describe a detailed microphysics of particle energization mechanisms. Tracing…
Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulation codes have wide applicability to first-principles modeling of multidimensional nonlinear plasma phenomena, including wake-field accelerators. This review addresses both finite difference and pseudo-spectral…
The identification of pre-acceleration mechanisms for cosmic ray ions in supernova remnant shocks is an important problem in astrophysics. Recent particle-in-cell (PIC) shock simulations have shown that inclusion of the full electron…
This review aims at providing an up-to-date status and a general introduction to the subject of the numerical study of energetic particle acceleration and transport in turbulent astrophysical flows. The subject is also complemented by a…
Particle-in-Cell (PIC) methods have achieved widespread recognition as simple and flexible approaches to model collisionless plasma physics in fully kinetic simulations of astrophysical environments. However, in many situations the standard…
Ab-initio numerical study of collisionless shocks in electron-ion unmagnetized plasmas is performed with fully relativistic particle in cell simulations. The main properties of the shock are shown, focusing on the implications for particle…
Particle acceleration at plasma shocks appears to be ubiquitous in the universe, spanning systems in the heliosphere, supernova remnants, and relativistic jets in distant active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts. This review addresses some of…
Collisionless shocks are pervasive in astrophysics and they are critical to understand cosmic ray acceleration. Laboratory experiments with intense lasers are now opening the way to explore and characterise the underlying microphysics,…
Acceleration processes that occur in astrophysical plasmas produce cosmic rays that are observed on Earth. To study particle acceleration, fully-kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are often used as they can unveil the microphysics…
We use particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of a collisionless, electron-ion plasma with a decreasing background magnetic field, $B$, to study the effect of velocity-space instabilities on the viscous heating and thermal conduction of the…
Collisionless shocks are ubiquitous in astrophysics and in the lab. Recent numerical simulations and experiments have shown how they can arise from the encounter of two collisionless plasma shells. When the shells interpenetrate, the…
We present the standard electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell method, starting from the discrete approximation of derivatives on a uniform grid. The application to second-order, centered, finite-difference discretization of the equations of…
When supersonic plasma flows collide, many physical processes contribute to the morphology of the resulting shock. One of these processes is the acceleration of non-thermal ions, which will, eventually, reach relativistic speeds and become…
Direct studies of intense laser-solid interactions is still of great challenges, because of the many coupled physical mechanisms, such as direct laser heating, ionization dynamics, collision among charged particles, and electrostatic or…
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…
Particle transport, acceleration and energisation are phenomena of major importance for both space and laboratory plasmas. Despite years of study, an accurate theoretical description of these effects is still lacking. Validating models with…
Collisionless shock acceleration, which transfers localized particle energies to non-thermal energetic particles via electromagnetic potential, is ubiquitous in space plasma. We investigate dynamics of collisionless electrostatic shocks…