Related papers: Laboratory evidence for proton energization by col…
The interaction between the strong winds in stellar colliding-wind binary (CWB) systems produces two shock fronts, delimiting the wind collision region (WCR). There, particles are expected to be accelerated mainly via diffusive shock…
The production of polarized proton beams with multi-GeV energies in ultra-intense laser interaction with targets is studied with three-dimensional Particle-In-Cell simulations. A near-critical density plasma target with pre-polarized proton…
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…
The subject of this paper is stochastic acceleration by plasma turbulence, a process akin to the original model proposed by Fermi. We review the relative merits of different acceleration models, in particular the so called first order Fermi…
The interaction between the strong winds of the stars in colliding-wind binary (CWB) systems produces two shock fronts, delimiting the wind collision region (WCR). There, particles are expected to be accelerated mainly via diffusive shock…
Thermalization and heating of plasma flows at shocks result in unstable charged-particle distributions which generate a wide range of electromagnetic waves. These waves, in turn, can further accelerate and scatter energetic particles. Thus,…
We review the physics of relativistic shocks, which are often invoked as the sources of non-thermal particles in pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets, and as possible sources of…
The expansion of a dense plasma through a more rarefied ionised medium is a phenomenon of interest in various physics environments ranging from astrophysics to high energy density laser- matter laboratory experiments. Here this situation is…
Electron injection at high Mach-number nonrelativistic perpendicular shocks is studied here for parameters that are applicable to young SNR shocks. Using high-resolution large-scale two-dimensional fully kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC)…
Collisionless, turbulent plasmas surround the Earth, from the magnetosphere to the intergalactic medium, and the fluctuations within them affect nearly every field in the space sciences, from space weather forecasts to theories of galaxy…
Energetic electrons are a common feature of interplanetary shocks and planetary bow shocks, and they are invoked as a key component of models of nonthermal radio emission, such as solar radio bursts. A simulation study is carried out of…
Electron acceleration to non-thermal, ultra-relativistic energies (~ 10-100 TeV) is revealed by radio and X-ray observations of shocks in young supernova remnants (SNRs). The diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) mechanism is usually invoked…
Interplanetary shocks are one of the proposed sources of suprathermal ion populations (i.e., ions with energies of a few times the solar wind energy). Here, we present results from a series of three-dimensional hybrid simulations of…
Shock-generated transients, such as hot flow anomalies (HFAs), upstream of planetary bow shocks, play a critical role in electron acceleration. Using multi-mission data from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) and ESA's Cluster missions,…
We investigate the interaction of nonthermal ions (protons and nuclei) accelerated in an ultrarelativistic blastwave with the pre-existing magnetic field of the medium into which the blastwave propagates. While particle acceleration…
Diffusive shock acceleration at collisionless shocks is thought to be the source of many of the energetic particles observed in space. Large-scale spatial variations of the magnetic field has been shown to be important in understanding…
We study the acceleration of charged particles by ultra-relativistic shocks using test-particle Monte-Carlo simulations. Two field configurations are considered: (i) shocks with uniform upstream magnetic field in the plane of the shock, and…
Relativistic sources, e.g. gamma-ray bursts, pulsar wind nebulae and powerful active galactic nuclei produce relativistic outflows that lead to the formation of collisionless shock waves, where particle acceleration is thought to take…
The outflows from gamma ray bursts, active galactic nuclei and relativistic jets in general interact with the surrounding media through collisionless shocks. With three dimensional relativistic particle-in-cell simulations we investigate…
We estimate the highest energy of proton diffusively accelerated by shock in knot A1 of the jet in luminous nearby quasar 3C 273. Referring to the recent polarization measurements using very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), we consider…