Related papers: Composition-asymmetric and sheared relativistic ma…
lasma instabilities excited in collisionless shocks are responsible for particle acceleration. We have investigated the particle acceleration and shock structure associated with an unmagnetized relativistic electron-positron jet propagating…
Magnetic reconnection occurs when two plasmas having co-planar but anti-parallel magnetic fields meet. At the contact point, the field is locally annihilated and the magnetic energy can be released into the surrounding plasma. Theory and…
We numerically study magnetic reconnection on different spatial scales and at different heights in the weakly ionized plasma of the low solar atmosphere (around $300-800$~km above the solar surface) within a reactive 2.5 D multi-fluid…
We present a new, approximate method for modelling the acceleration and collimation of relativistic jets in the presence of gravity. This method is self-similar throughout the computational domain where gravitational effects are negligible…
Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous process in plasma physics, driving rapid and energetic events such as coronal mass ejections. Reconnection between magnetic fields with arbitrary shear can be decomposed into an anti-parallel,…
Magnetic reconnection is invoked as one of the primary mechanisms to produce energetic particles. We employ large-scale three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection in magnetically-dominated ($\sigma=10$) pair plasmas…
The nonlinear evolution of relativistic magnetic reconnection in sheared magnetic configuration (with a guide field) is investigated by using two-dimensional relativistic two-fluid simulations. Relativistic guide field reconnection features…
In a magnetized, collisionless plasma, the magnetic moment of the constituent particles is an adiabatic invariant. An increase in the magnetic-field strength in such a plasma thus leads to an increase in the thermal pressure perpendicular…
How energy is converted into thermal energy in weakly collisional and collisionless plasma processes such as magnetic reconnection and plasma turbulence has recently been the subject of intense scrutiny. The pressure-strain interaction has…
Particle acceleration in space and astrophysical reconnection sites is an important unsolved problem in studies of magnetic reconnection. Earlier kinetic simulations have identified several acceleration mechanisms that are associated with…
Partially-ionized plasmas consist of charged and neutral particles whose mutual collisions modify magnetic reconnection compared with the fully-ionized case. The collisions alter the rate and locations of the magnetic dissipation heating…
We present results from experiments on the head-on merging of two supersonic plasma jets in an initially collisionless regime for the counter-streaming ions. The plasma jets are of either an argon/impurity or hydrogen/impurity mixture and…
Magnetic field-aligned electric fields are characteristic features of magnetic reconnection processes operating in externally agitated magnetized plasmas. An especially interesting environment for such a process are the coronae of accretion…
Plasma processes close to SNR shocks result in the amplification of magnetic fields and in the acceleration of electrons, injecting them into the diffusive acceleration mechanism. The acceleration of electrons and the B field amplification…
Magnetic reconnection is an energy conversion process important in many astrophysical contexts including the Earth's magnetosphere, where the process can be investigated in-situ. Here we present the first encounter of a reconnection site by…
The axisymmetric 3-D MHD outflow of a cold plasma from a magnetized and rotating astrophysical object is numerically simulated with the purpose of investigating the outflow's magnetocentrifugal acceleration and eventual collimation. Gravity…
Microscopic instability and macroscopic flow pattern resulting from colliding plasmas are studied analytically in support of laboratory experiments. The plasma flows are assumed to stream radially from two separate centers. In a…
A supersonic flow of magnetized plasma is produced by the application of a 1 MA-peak, 500 ns current pulse to a cylindrical arrangement of parallel wires, known as an inverse wire array. The plasma flow is produced by the JxB acceleration…
It is proposed that reconnection would be a main mechanism governing the plasma processes on auroral time scales in the topside ionosphere/high-latitude magnetosphere transition. It occurs in the downward current region between two narrow…
Particle acceleration and pitch-angle anisotropy resulting from magnetic reconnection are investigated in highly magnetized ion-electron plasmas. By means of fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we demonstrate that magnetic…