Related papers: Electron heating at quasi-perpendicular collisionl…
Seventy measurements of electron heating at the Earth's quasi-perpendicular bow shock are analyzed in terms of Maxwellian-temperatures obtained from fits to the core electrons that separate thermal heating from supra-thermal acceleration.…
Collisionless shocks heat electrons in the solar wind, interstellar blast waves, and hot gas permeating galaxy clusters. How much shock heating goes to electrons instead of ions, and what plasma physics controls electron heating? We…
Seventy crossings of the Earths bow shock by the THEMIS satellites have been used to study thermal electron heating in collisionless, quasi-perpendicular shocks. It was found that the temperature increase of thermal electrons differed from…
Using Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations at the Earth's quasi-parallel bow shock we demonstrate that electrons are heated by two different mechanisms: a quasi-adiabatic heating process during magnetic field compression,…
Under sufficiently high electric field gradients, electron behaviour within exactly perpendicular shocks is unstable to the so-called trajectory instability. We extend previous work paying special attention to shortiscale, high amplitude…
The energy partition in high Mach number collisionless shock waves is central to a wide range of high-energy astrophysical environments. We present a new theoretical model for electron heating that accounts for the energy exchange between…
We present a survey of 1D kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of quasi-parallel non-relativistic shocks to identify the environments favorable for electron acceleration. We explore an unprecedented range of shock speeds $v_{\rm sh}\approx…
We measure the thermal electron energization in 1D and 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of quasi-perpendicular, low-beta ($\beta_p=0.25$) collisionless ion-electron shocks with mass ratio $m_i/m_e=200$, fast Mach number…
Recent X-ray observations of merger shocks in galaxy clusters have shown that the post-shock plasma is two-temperature, with the protons hotter than the electrons. By means of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we study the…
High Mach number collisionless shocks are found in planetary systems and supernova remnants (SNRs). Electrons are heated at these shocks to the temperature well above the Rankine-Hugoniot prediction. However processes responsible for…
We present laboratory results on energy partitioning from supercritical, magnetized collisionless shock experiments ($\rm{M_A} \sim 8$, $\rm{M_{ms}}\sim 4$). We report the first observation of fully-developed laboratory shocks that evolve…
Shock waves propagating in collisionless heliospheric and astrophysical plasmas have been studied extensively over the decades. One prime motivation is to understand the nonthermal particle acceleration at shocks. Although the theory of…
The analysis of Balmer-dominated optical spectra from non-radiative (adiabatic) SNRs has shown that the ratio of the electron to proton temperature temperature at the blast wave is close to unity at v_s <= 400 km/s, but declines sharply…
Based on Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations from the Earth's bow shock, we have identified two plasma heating processes that operate at quasi-perpendicular shocks. Ions are subject to stochastic heating in a process controlled by…
Efficiency of electron heating through microinstabilities generated in the transition region of a quasi-perpendicular shock for wide ange of Mach numbers is investigated by utilizing PIC (Particle-In-Cell) simulation and model analyses. In…
Electron acceleration to non-thermal energies in low Mach number (M<5) shocks is revealed by radio and X-ray observations of galaxy clusters and solar flares, but the electron acceleration mechanism remains poorly understood. Diffusive…
In systems accreting well below the Eddington rate, the plasma in the innermost regions of the disk is collisionless and two-temperature, with the ions hotter than the electrons. Yet, whether a collisionless faster-than-Coulomb energy…
Understanding the heating of electrons to quasi-thermal energies at collisionless shocks has broad implications for plasma astrophysics. It directly impacts the interpretation of X-ray spectra from shocks, is important for understanding how…
We study the suprathermal electron acceleration mechanism in a perpendicular magnetosonic shock wave in a high Mach number regime by using a particle-in-cell simulation. We find that shock surfing/surftron acceleration producing the…
Recent X-ray observations of merger shocks in galaxy clusters have shown that the post-shock plasma is two-temperature, with the protons being hotter than the electrons. In this work, the second of a series, we investigate by means of…