Related papers: Anomalous coupling in radiation mediated shocks}
The collision of two plasma clouds at a speed that exceeds the ion acoustic speed can result in the formation of shocks. This phenomenon is observed not only in astrophysical scenarios such as the propagation of supernova remnant (SNR)…
Magnetic fields in rotating and radiating astrophysical plasma can be produced due to a radiative interaction between plasma layers moving relative to each other. The efficiency of current drive, and with it the associated dynamo effect, is…
Energetic electromagnetic emissions by astrophysical jets like those that are launched during the collapse of a massive star and trigger gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are partially attributed to relativistic internal shocks. The shocks are…
Diffusive shock acceleration in the environs of a remnant's expanding shell is a popular candidate for the origin of SNR gamma-rays. In this paper, results from our study of non-linear effects in shock acceleration theory and their impact…
We have performed extensive two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations to study the amplification of magnetic fields when a supernova blast wave propagates into a turbulent interstellar plasma. The blast wave is driven by injecting…
Magnetized turbulence and magnetic reconnection are often invoked to explain the nonthermal emission observed from a wide variety of astrophysical sources. By means of fully-kinetic 2D and 3D PIC simulations, we investigate the interplay…
Compton scattering of gamma rays propagating in a pair plasma can drive the formation of a relativistic electron positron beam. This process is scrutinised theoretically and numerically via particle-in-cell simulations. In addition, we…
Internal shocks between propagating plasma shells, originally ejected at different times with different velocities are believed to play a major role in dissipating the kinetic energy, thereby explaining the observed lightcurve and spectra…
In this paper we show that perturbations of the accretion flow within the central engines of active galctic nuclei (AGN) are likely to form shock waves in the accreting plasma. Such shocks, which may be either collisional or collisionless,…
Electromagnetic field confinement due to plasma near accreting black holes can trigger superradiant instabilities at the linear level, limiting the spin of black holes and providing novel astrophysical sources of electromagnetic bursts.…
The collision of two expanding plasma clouds is investigated, emphasizing instabilities and electron energization in the plasma mixing layer. This work is directly relevant to laboratory experiments with explosively-created laser or z-pinch…
We examine the effect of Compton drag on the dynamics of a relativistic shock wave. Similarity solutions describing a radiation-supported shock are obtained for certain profiles of the external radiation intensity and the density of the…
The electromagnetic processes of Compton scattering and photon splitting/merging are investigated in the presence of strongly magnetized electron-positron plasma. The influence of these processes on the radiation transfer in the…
The explosion of a core collapse supernova drives a powerful shock front into the wind from the progenitor star. A layer of shocked circumstellar gas and ejecta develops that is subject to hydrodynamic instabilities. The hot gas can be…
Sub-photospheric shock dissipation is one of the main proposed mechanisms for producing the prompt gamma-ray burst (GRB) emission. Such shocks are mediated by scattering of radiation. We introduce a time dependent, special relativistic code…
We simulate, using a particle-in-cell code, the chain of acceleration processes at work during the Compton-based interaction of a dilute electron-ion plasma with an extreme-intensity, incoherent gamma-ray flux with a photon density several…
A case of two interpenetrating, cold and quasi-neutral ion-electron plasmas is investigated with the multi-fluid approach. We consider that one plasma flows quasi-parallel to the lines of a background magnetic field embedded in another…
It is generally accepted that relativistic jet outflows power the nonthermal emission from active galactic nuclei (AGN). The composition of these jets -- leptonic versus hadronic -- is still under debate. We investigate the microphysical…
Relativistic plasma masers operating on the anomalous cyclotron-Cherenkov resonance and the Cherenkov-drift resonance are capable of explaining the main observational characteristics of pulsar radio emission. Both electromagnetic…
One of the most important unresolved issues in gamma-ray burst physics is the origin of the prompt gamma-ray spectrum. Its general non-thermal character and the softness in the X-ray band remain unexplained. We tackle these issues by…