Related papers: Multi-scale simulations of particle acceleration i…
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…
Shocks in astrophysical fluids can generate suprathermal particles by first order (or diffusive) Fermi acceleration. In the test particle regime there is a simple relation between the spectrum of the accelerated particles and the jump…
Particles are accelerated to very high, non-thermal energies during explosive energy-release phenomena in space, solar, and astrophysical plasma environments. While it has been established that magnetic reconnection plays an important role…
Particle acceleration by turbulence plays a role in many astrophysical environments. The non- linear evolution of the underlying cosmic-ray spectrum is complex and can be described by a Fokker-Planck equation, which in general has to be…
Hot accretion flows contain collisionless plasmas that are believed to be capable of accelerating particles to very high energies, as a result of turbulence generated by the magnetorotational instability (MRI). We conduct unstratified…
Powerful stellar winds and supernova explosions with intense energy release in the form of strong shock waves can convert a sizeable part of the kinetic energy release into energetic particles. The starforming regions are argued as a…
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…
Shear flows, ubiquitous in space and astrophysical plasmas, can accelerate particles through turbulence excited by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. We present the first numerical study of particle acceleration in non-relativistic,…
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…
We review recent developments in particle acceleration by Poynting flux using plasma kinetic simulations, and discuss their potential applications to gamma-ray burst phenomenology
Stochastic particle acceleration in turbulent plasmas plays a key role in shaping high-energy emission from relativistic outflows, such as those in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and microquasars. While traditional Fermi-II models provide a…
Stochastic acceleration of charged particles due to interactions with magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) plasma waves is the dominant process leading to the formation of the high-energy electron and ion distributions in a variety of astrophysical…
Laboratory experiments to explore plasma conditions and stimulated particle acceleration can illuminate aspects of the cosmic particle acceleration process. Here we discuss the cosmic-ray candidate source object variety, and what has been…
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…
We investigate the physics of particle acceleration at non-relativistic shocks exploiting two different and complementary approaches, namely a semi-analytic modeling of cosmic-ray modified shocks and large hybrid (kinetic protons/fluid…
We investigate particle acceleration in an MHD-scale system of multiple current sheets by performing 2D and 3D MHD simulations combined with a test particle simulation. The system is unstable for the tearing-mode instability, and magnetic…
Nonthermal relativistic plasmas are ubiquitous in astrophysical systems like pulsar wind nebulae and active galactic nuclei, as inferred from their emission spectra. The underlying nonthermal particle acceleration (NTPA) processes have…
Observational data require a rich variety of mechanisms to accelerate fast particles in astrophysical environments operating under different conditions. The mechanisms discussed in the literature include varying magnetic fields in compact…
We review basic theoretical concepts in particle acceleration, with particular emphasis on processes likely to occur in regions of magnetic reconnection. Several new developments are discussed, including detailed studies of reconnection in…
Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is an important agent of energetic particle acceleration. Focusing on the compressible properties of magnetic turbulence, we adopt test particle method to study the particle acceleration from Alfv\'en,…