Related papers: Collisionless tangential discontinuity between pai…
Collisionless plasma shocks are efficient sources of non-thermal particle acceleration in space and astrophysical systems. We use hybrid (kinetic ions -- fluid electrons) simulations to examine the non-linear feedback of the self-generated…
We present preliminary results of particle-in-cell simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection for conditions that apply to magnetically dominated pair plasma jets such as those in gamma-ray bursts. We find similar behaviour to…
Propagation of energetic particles across the mean field direction in turbulent magnetic fields is often described as spatial diffusion. Recently, it has been suggested that initially the particles propagate systematically along meandering…
Shock acceleration is a 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…
Observations of gamma-ray burst afterglows suggest that the correlation length of magnetic field fluctuations downstream of relativistic non-magnetized collisionless shocks grows with distance from the shock to scales much larger than the…
We present results from three-dimensional particle simulations of collisionless shocks with relativistic counter-streaming ion-electron plasmas. Particles are followed over many skin depths downstream of the shock. Open boundaries allow the…
In this paper we use three-dimensional electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations to investigate the interaction of a small-Larmor radius plasma cloud/jet with a transverse non-uniform magnetic field typical to a tangential discontinuity…
This research was motivated by the recent observations indicating very strong magnetic fields at some supernova remnant shocks, which suggests in-situ generation of magnetic turbulence. The dissertation presents a numerical model of…
Collisional plasma shocks generated from supersonic flows are an important feature in many astrophysical and laboratory high-energy-density plasmas. Compared to single-ion-species plasma shocks, plasma shock fronts with multiple ion species…
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,…
We present the results of an experiment on plasma generation via laser ablation at 10^12 W/cm^2 of power intensity and in a nanosecond domain. Prompt electrons emission and complex plasma plume fragmentation were simultaneously observed for…
In addition to electrons and protons, nonrelativistic quasiparallel shocks are expected to possess the ability to accelerate heavy ions. The shocks in supernova remnants are generally supposed to be accelerators of the Galactic cosmic rays,…
We measure the expansion of an ultracold plasma across the field lines of a uniform magnetic field. We image the ion distribution by extracting the ions with a high voltage pulse onto a position-sensitive detector. Early in the lifetime of…
The relationship between a decaying strong turbulence and kinetic instabilities in a slowly expanding plasma is investigated using two-dimensional (2-D) hybrid expanding box simulations. We impose an initial ambient magnetic field…
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…
After introduction we focus on: the transport of charged particles, the acceleration of ions at shocks, and the acceleration of electrons at shocks. Chapter 2 studies the propagation of solar energetic particles(SEPs) in turbulent magnetic…
A multispecies, collisionless plasma is modeled by the Vlasov-Poisson system. Assuming that the electric field decays with sufficient rapidity as $t \to\infty$, we show that the velocity characteristics and spatial averages of the particle…
The kinetic features of plasmoid chain formation and evolution are investigated by two dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations. Magnetic reconnection is initiated in multiple X points by the tearing instability. Plasmoids form and grow in…
The growth rate of long wavelength kinetic instabilities arising due to the interaction of a collimated beam of relativistic particles and a cold unmagnetized plasma are calculated in the ultra relativistic limit. For sufficiently…
Colliding collisionless shocks appear in a great variety of astrophysical phenomena and are thought to be possible sources of particle acceleration in the Universe. We have previously investigated particle acceleration induced by single…