Related papers: Particle Acceleration in Colliding Flows: Binary S…
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…
Collisionless shocks tend to send charged particles into the upstream, driving electric currents through the plasma. Using kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate how the background thermal plasma neutralizes such currents in…
Monte-Carlo computations for highly relativistic parallel shock particle acceleration are presented for upstream flow gamma factors, $\Gamma=(1-V_{1}^{2}/c^{2})^{-0.5}$ with values between 5 and $10^{3}$. The results show that the spectral…
(abridged) We present results of test-particle simulations on both the first and the second order Fermi acceleration at relativistic parallel shock waves. We consider two scenarios for particle injection: (i) particles injected at the shock…
A particle acceleration mechanism by radiation pressure of precursor waves in a relativistic shock is studied. For a relativistic, perpendicular shock with the upstream bulk Lorentz factor of $\gamma_1 \gg 1$, large amplitude…
We expand the off-resonant scattering theory for particle diffusion in magnetized current filaments that can be typically compared to astrophysical jets, including active galactic nucleus jets. In a high plasma beta region where the…
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…
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 experimentally examine the dynamics of two-particle collisions occuring on a surface. We find that in two-particle collisions a standard coefficient of restitution model may not capture crucial dynamics of this system. Instead, for a…
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 analytical theory of diffusive cosmic ray acceleration at parallel stationary shock waves with magnetostatic turbulence is generalized to arbitrary shock speeds $V_s=\beta_1c$, including in particular relativistic speeds. This is…
In-situ spacecraft observations recently suggested that the transport of energetic particles accelerated at heliospheric shocks can be anomalous, i.e. the mean square displacement can grow non-linearly in time. In particular, a new analysis…
It is shown that two circularly polarised Alfv\'en waves that propagate along the ambient magnetic field in an uniform plasma trigger non oscillating electromagnetic field components when they cross each other. The non-oscilliating field…
Collisionless relativistic shocks have been the focus of intense theoretical and numerical investigations in recent years. The acceleration of particles, the generation of electromagnetic microturbulence and the building up of a shock front…
The momentum distribution of particles accelerated at strong non-relativistic shocks may be influenced by the spatial distribution of the flow speed around the shock. This phenomenon becomes evident in the cosmic-ray modified shock, where…
We report an unanticipated electron dynamics in a classical setting of a uniform magnetic field, a parallel electric field, and a right-handed circularly polarized wave (R-wave). The setting admits a natural trajectory that a particle…
We present numerical results from plasma particle simulations of collisionless shocks and ultra-relativistic counter-streaming plasmas. We demonstrate how the field-particle interactions lead to particle acceleration behind the shock-front.…
The probability that a particle, crossing the shock along a given direction, be reflected backwards along another direction, was shown to be the key element in determining the spectrum of non--thermal particles accelerated via Fermi…
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…
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…