Related papers: Ion Acceleration at Magnetotail Plasma Jets
Observations indicate that the magnetotail convection is turbulent and bi-modal, consisting of fast bursty bulk flows (BBF) and a nearly stagnant background. We demonstrate that this observed phenomenon may be understood in terms of the…
Processes driven by unsteady reconnection can efficiently accelerate particles in many astrophysical plasmas. An example are the reconnection jet fronts in an outflow region. We present evidence of suprathermal ion acceleration between two…
Energetic particles with energies from tens of keV to a few hundreds keV are frequently observed in the Earth's magnetotail. Here we study, by means of a test particle numerical simulation, the acceleration of different ion species…
The high cadence plasma, electric, and magnetic field measurements by the Magnetospheric MultiScale spacecraft allow us to explore the near-Earth space plasma with an unprecedented time and spatial resolution, resolving electron-scale…
The structure of dipolarization jets with finite width in the dawn-dusk direction relevant to magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetotail is explored with particle-in-cell simulations. We carry out Riemann simulations of the evolution…
Magnetosheath jets are localized fast flows with enhanced dynamic pressure. When they supermagnetosonically compress the ambient magnetosheath plasma, a bow wave or shock can form ahead of them. Such a bow wave was recently observed to…
Earth's magnetotail, and the plasma sheet embedded in it, is a highly dynamic region that is coupled to both the solar wind and to the inner magnetosphere. As a consequence of this coupling, the plasma sheet undergoes explosive energy…
Using 1D and 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of a plasma with a growing magnetic field $\vec{B}$, we show that ions can be stochastically accelerated by the ion-cyclotron (IC) instability. As $\vec{B}$ grows, an ion pressure…
Plasma jets are ubiquitous in the Earth's magnetotail. Plasma jet fronts (JFs) are the seat of particle acceleration and energy conversion. JFs are commonly associated with dipolarization fronts (DFs) representing solitary sharp and strong…
Magnetospheres are a ubiquitous feature of magnetized bodies embedded in a plasma flow. While large planetary magnetospheres have been studied for decades by spacecraft, ion-scale "mini" magnetospheres can provide a unique environment to…
A density structure within the magnetic cloud of an interplanetary coronal mass ejection impacted Earth and caused significant perturbations in plasma boundaries. We describe the effects of this structure on the magnetosheath plasma…
We present measurements from the ESA/NASA Cluster mission that show in situ acceleration of ions to energies of 1 MeV outside the bow shock. The observed heating can be associated with the presence of electromagnetic structures with strong…
Narrow-band linearly polarized waves, having a resonant structure and a peak frequency between the local cyclotron frequency of protons and heavy ions, have been detected in the magnetospheres of Earth and of Mercury. Some of these wave…
We investigate turbulence in magnetic reconnection jets in the Earth's magnetotail using data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft. We show that signatures of a limited inertial range are observed in many reconnection jets. The…
The impact of high-speed jets -- dynamic pressure enhancements in the magnetosheath -- on the Earth's magnetopause has been observed to trigger local magnetic reconnection. We perform a three-dimensional hybrid simulation to study the…
We use large hybrid simulations to study ion acceleration and generation of magnetic turbulence due to the streaming of particles that are self-consistently accelerated at non-relativistic shocks. When acceleration is efficient, we find…
The degree of deviation from the thermodynamic equilibrium in the ion velocity distribution functions (VDFs), measured by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission in the Earth's turbulent magnetosheath, is quantitatively investigated.…
We investigate shock structure and particle acceleration in relativistic magnetized collisionless electron-ion shocks by means of 2.5D particle-in-cell simulations with ion-to-electron mass ratios (m_i/m_e) ranging from 16 to 1000. We…
We compare Particle-in-Cell simulation results of relativistic electron-ion shear flows with different bulk Lorentz factors, and discuss their implications for spine-sheath models of blazar versus gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets. Specifically,…
The first-order Fermi acceleration of electrons requires an injection of electrons into a mildly relativistic energy range. However, the mechanism of injection has remained a puzzle both in theory and observation. We present direct evidence…