Related papers: Reconnection-driven particle acceleration in relat…
Turbulent plasma motion is common in the universe, and invoked in solar flares to drive effective acceleration leading to high energy electrons. Unresolved mass motions are frequently detected in flares from extreme ultraviolet (EUV)…
We study the evolutionary conditions for Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability in a H-alpha solar surge observed in NOAA AR 8227 on 1998 May 30. The jet with speeds in the range of 45-50 km/s, width of 7 Mm, and electron number density of 3.83…
We perform numerical simulations of particle acceleration in relativistic, self-driven turbulent magnetic reconnection using the MHD-PIC method. We systematically investigate the dependence of the non-thermal particle spectral exponent on…
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…
The recent development of tomographic analysis of radio data shows the presence of sheaths around several extragalactic jets. We have studied the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of such stratified jets, describing them as inner relativistic…
Aims. Relativistic jets launched from active galactic nuclei accelerate up to highly relativistic velocities within a few parsecs to tens of parsecs. The precise way in which this process takes place is still under study. While magnetic…
We investigate the stability and nonlinear evolution of localized electron-scale current sheets using fully kinetic, electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations in two and three dimensions. By varying the current-sheet thickness, we…
The phenomenon of resonant energization of a relativistic quantum particle, moving in unison with an intense ElectroMagnetic Wave, is demonstrated in a semiclassical calculation. The wave nature of the quantum particle is of essence because…
Rapid gamma-ray flares pose an astrophysical puzzle, requiring mechanisms both to accelerate energetic particles and to produce fast observed variability. These dual requirements may be satisfied by collisionless relativistic magnetic…
Magnetic reconnection is a leading mechanism for dissipating magnetic energy and accelerating nonthermal particles in Poynting-flux dominated flows. In this letter, we investigate nonthermal particle acceleration during magnetic…
We analyze particle acceleration in explosive reconnection events in magnetically dominated proton-electron plasmas. Reconnection is driven by large-scale magnetic stresses in interacting current-carrying flux tubes. Our model relies on…
The spin polarization measurements of particles emitted in heavy-ion collisions have opened the possibility for new phenomenological investigations of spin physics in relativistic fluids. The theoretical predictions of global polarization…
We report the results of 1D particle-in-cell simulations of ultrarelativistic shock waves in proton-electron-positron plasmas. We consider magnetized shock waves, in which the upstream medium carries a large scale magnetic field, directed…
Magnetic reconnection, a plasma process converting magnetic energy to particle kinetic energy, is often invoked to explain magnetic energy releases powering high-energy flares in astrophysical sources including pulsar wind nebulae and black…
We demonstrate that particles are regularly accelerated while experiencing curvature drift in flows driven by magnetic tension. Some examples of such flows include spontaneous turbulent reconnection and decaying magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)…
The nature of the intense X-ray emission from powerful extragalactic jets at large ($>1$ kpc) scale is still debated. The scenario that invokes the inverse Compton scattering of the CMB by electrons is challenged by the lack of gamma-ray…
A property common to several different astrophysical sources of high-energy gamma-rays is the presence of bulk motion at relativistic speed. The intrinsic spectra of the nonthermal radiating particles also show interesting similarities,…
Fast Magnetic Reconnection is currently regarded as an important process also beyond the solar system, specially in magnetically dominated regions of galactic and extragalactic sources like the surrounds of black holes and relativistic…
Relativistic jets are highly collimated plasma outflows emerging from accreting black holes. They are launched with a significant amount of magnetic energy, which can be dissipated to accelerate nonthermal particles and give rise to…
Relativistic magnetically dominated turbulence is an efficient engine for particle acceleration in a collisionless plasma. Ultrarelativistic particles accelerated by interactions with turbulent fluctuations form non-thermal power-law…