Related papers: Particle Injection Problem in Magnetic Reconnectio…
Dissipative processes cause collisionless plasmas in many systems to develop nonthermal particle distributions with broad power-law tails. The prevalence of power-law energy distributions in space/astrophysical observations and kinetic…
Magnetic reconnection -- a fundamental plasma physics process, where magnetic field lines of opposite polarity annihilate -- is invoked in astrophysical plasmas as a powerful mechanism of nonthermal particle acceleration, able to explain…
An oblique-rotating pulsar generates a relativistic striped wind in a pulsar wind nebula (PWN). The termination shock of the PWN compresses the Poynting-flux-dominated flow and drives magnetic reconnection. By carrying out particle-in-cell…
Magnetic reconnection drives multi-species particle acceleration broadly in space and astrophysics. We perform the first 3D hybrid simulations (fluid electrons, kinetic ions) that contain sufficient scale separation to produce nonthermal…
Turbulent flows in the solar wind, large scale current sheets, multiple current sheets, and shock waves lead to the formation of environments in which a dense network of current sheets is established and sustains "turbulent reconnection".…
Fast particles diffusing along magnetic field lines in a turbulent plasma can diffuse through and then return to the same eddy many times before the eddy is randomized in the turbulent flow. This leads to an enhancement of particle…
Charged particles in a magnetosphere are spontaneously attracted to a planet while increasing their kinetic energy via inward diffusion process. A constraint on particles' micro-scale adiabatic invariants restricts the class of motions…
This work presents a more detailed analysis of the process of magnetic reconnection as promising ion beam accelerator mechanism with possible applications in laboratory plasmas and, more importantly, in the plasma propulsion field. In a…
First order Fermi acceleration at astrophysical shocks is often invoked as a mechanism for the generation of non-thermal particles. This mechanism is especially simple in the approximation that the accelerated particles behave like test…
Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is a ubiquitous dynamical state of astrophysical plasmas and a primary agent in the redistribution, dissipation, and conversion of energy into particle populations. Yet turbulence is still most often…
Magnetic reconnection has long been known to be the most important mechanism not only for mixing the plasmas by changing the magnetic field topology but also for releasing the magnetic field energy into the plasma kinetic energy. During…
A new particle acceleration process in a developing Alfv\'{e}n turbulence in the course of successive parametric instabilities of a relativistic pair plasma is investigated by utilyzing one-dimensional electromagnetic full particle code.…
Relativistic magnetized jets from active galaxies are among the most powerful cosmic accelerators, but their particle acceleration mechanisms remain a mystery. We present a new acceleration mechanism associated with the development of the…
In solar flares and other astrophysical systems, a major challenge for solving particle acceleration problem associated with magnetic reconnection is the enormous scale separation between kinetic scales and observed reconnection scale.…
The rapid interaction of highly energetic particle beams with matter induces dynamic responses in the impacted component. If the beam pulse is sufficiently intense, extreme conditions can be reached, such as very high pressures, changes of…
Turbulent high-energy astrophysical systems often feature asymmetric energy injection: for instance, Alfven waves propagating from an accretion disk into its corona. Such systems are "imbalanced": the energy fluxes parallel and…
Plasma energization through magnetic reconnection in the magnetically-dominated regime featured by low plasma beta ($\beta = 8 \pi nkT_0/B^2 \ll 1$) and/or high magnetization ($\sigma = B^2/(4 \pi nmc^2) \gg 1$) is important in a series of…
One of the earliest mechanisms proposed for plasma heating was magnetic pumping (MP). However, its significance for astrophysical phenomena, including particle acceleration, has yet to be appreciated. MP-energized particles tap energy from…
We review the physics of relativistic shocks, which are often invoked as the sources of non-thermal particles in pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets, and as possible sources of…
I present a review of nonthermal processes in the large scale structure of the universe. After examining the properties of cosmological shock waves and their role as particle accelerators, I discuss the main observational facts, from radio…