Related papers: A mechanism that could stop the acceleration proce…
We report on the temporally and spatially resolved detection of the precursory stages that lead to the formation of an unmagnetized, supercritical collision-less shock in a laser-driven laboratory experiment. The measured evolution of the…
We present analysis of more than one hundred large-amplitude bipolar electrostatic structures in a quasi-perpendicular supercritical Earth's bow shock crossing, measured by the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft. The occurrence of the…
Collisionless plasma shock theory, which applies for example to the afterglow of gamma ray bursts, still contains key issues that are poorly understood. In this paper we study charged particle dynamics in a highly relativistic collisionless…
Relativistic sources, e.g. gamma-ray bursts, pulsar wind nebulae and powerful active galactic nuclei produce relativistic outflows that lead to the formation of collisionless shock waves, where particle acceleration is thought to take…
The physics of collisionless relativistic shocks with a moderate magnetization is presented. Micro-physics is relevant to explain the most energetic radiative phenomena of Nature, namely that of the termination shock of Gamma Ray Bursts. A…
Electron acceleration in collisionless shocks with arbitrary magnetic field orientations is discussed. It is shown that the injection of thermal electrons into diffusive shock acceleration process is achieved by an electron beam with a…
Rheological properties of dense flows of hard particles are singular as one approaches the jamming threshold where flow ceases, both for granular flows dominated by inertia, and for over-damped suspensions. Concomitantly, the lengthscale…
Stationary solutions to the equations of non-linear diffusive shock acceleration play a fundamental role in the theory of cosmic-ray acceleration. Their existence usually requires that a fraction of the accelerated particles be allowed to…
Collisionless shocks can exhibit non-stationary behavior even under steady upstream conditions, forming a complex transition region. Ion phase-space holes, linked to shock self-reformation and surface ripples, are a signature of this…
We discuss the probability distribution of relative speed $\Delta V$ of inertial particles suspended in a highly turbulent gas when the Stokes numbers, a dimensionless measure of their inertia, is large. We identify a mechanism giving rise…
Particle acceleration at astrophysical shocks may be very efficient if magnetic scattering is self-generated by the same particles. This nonlinear process adds to the nonlinear modification of the shock due to the dynamical reaction of the…
The shear wave speed is an upper limit for the speed of cracks loaded in tension in linear elastic solids. We have discovered that in a non-linear material, cracks in tension (Mode I) exceed this sound speed, and travel in an intersonic…
Collisionless shocks generated by two colliding relativistic electron-positron plasma shells are studied using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. Shocks are mediated by the Weibel instability (WI), and the kinetic energy of the fastest…
A system of three particles undergoing inelastic collisions in arbitrary spatial dimensions is studied with the aim of establishing the domain of ``inelastic collapse''---an infinite number of collisions which take place in a finite time.…
The formation of non-relativistic collisionless shocks in laboratory with ultrahigh intensity lasers is studied via \emph{ab initio} multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The microphysics behind shock formation and dissipation,…
The instability of a monoenergetic electron beam in a collisional one-dimensional plasma bounded between grounded walls is considered both analytically and numerically. Collisions between electrons and neutrals are accounted for the plasma…
The flow of a charged-stabilized suspension through a single constricted channel is studied experimentally by tracking the particles individually. Surprisingly, the behavior is found to be qualitatively similar to that of inertial dry…
Although the origin of cosmic rays (CRs) remains an open question, collisionless magnetized shock waves are widely regarded as key sites for particle acceleration. Recent theories further suggest that shock-shock collisions in stellar…
Dynamics of a charged relativistic particle in a uniform magnetic field and an obliquely propagating electrostatic shock wave is considered. The system is reduced to a two degrees of freedom Hamiltonian system with slow and fast variables.…
We consider the decelerating shock instability of Vishniac for a finite layer of constant density. This serves both to clarify which aspects of the Vishniac instability mechanism depend on compressible effects away from the shock front and…