Related papers: Test particle sampling and particle acceleration i…
While collisionless plasmas are ubiquitously present near astrophysical compact objects, the impact that their composition has on the high-energy emission is presently unknown. We present the first investigation of particle-acceleration…
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…
Density inhomogeneities are ubiquitous in space and astrophysical plasmas, particularly at magnetic reconnection sites, shock fronts, and within compressible turbulence. The gradients associated with these inhomogeneous plasma regions serve…
A two-dimensional (2D) shock-rest-frame model for particle simulations is developed. Then full kinetic dynamics of a perpendicular collisionless shock is examined by means of a 2D full particle simulation. We found that in the 2D simulation…
Magnetized collisionless shocks drive particle acceleration broadly in space and astrophysics. We perform the first large-scale particle-in-cell simulations with realistic laboratory parameters (density, temperature, and velocity) to…
We propose a new two-stage model for acceleration of electrons in solar flares. In the first stage, electrons are accelerated stochastically in a post-reconnection turbulent downflow. The second stage is the reprocessing of a subset of…
In situ measurements of kinetic scale current sheets in the solar wind show that they are often approximately force-free although the plasma beta is of order one. They frequently display systematic asymmetric and anti-correlated spatial…
A fast-mode shock can form in the front of reconnection outflows and has been suggested as a promising site for particle acceleration in solar flares. Recent development of magnetic reconnection has shown that numerous plasmoids can be…
Energetic electrons of up to tens of MeV are created during explosive phenomena in the solar corona. While many theoretical models consider magnetic reconnection as a possible way of generating energetic electrons, the precise roles of…
We use the Los Alamos VPIC code to investigate particle acceleration in relativistic, unmagnetized, collisionless electron-ion plasmas. We run our simulations both with a realistic proton-to-electron mass ratio m_p/m_e = 1836, as well as…
Nanoflare heating through small-scale magnetic reconnection events is one of the prime candidates to explain heating of the solar corona. However, direct signatures of nanoflares are difficult to determine, and unambiguous observational…
We report on an effort to study the connections between dynamics in simulated radio galaxy plasma flows and the properties of nonthermal electron populations carried in those flows. To do this we have introduced a new numerical scheme for…
We perform a numerical-simulation study of the acceleration of electrons at shocks that propagate through a prespecified, kinematically defined turbulent magnetic field. The turbulence consists of broadband magnetic fluctuations that are…
Particle transport, acceleration and energisation are phenomena of major importance for both space and laboratory plasmas. Despite years of study, an accurate theoretical description of these effects is still lacking. Validating models with…
Sudden jets of collimated plasma arise from many locations on the Sun, including active regions. The magnetic field along which a jet emerges is often open to interplanetary space, offering a clear "escape route" for any flare-accelerated…
We use 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to study the effect of the saturated whistler instability on the viscous heating and nonthermal acceleration of electrons in a shearing, collisionless plasma with a growing magnetic field,…
We show that the coronal heating and the acceleration of the fast solar wind in the coronal holes are natural consequence of the footpoint fluctuations of the magnetic fields at the photosphere by one-dimensional, time-dependent, and…
This work presents a model for generating nonthermal power-law tails of particles' energy probability density functions in turbulent collisionless plasmas, applicable to both non-relativistic and relativistic scenarios. We propose that…
Solar wind provides an example of a weakly collisional plasma expanding from a thermal source in the presence of spatially diverging magnetic field lines. Observations show that in the inner heliosphere, the electron temperature declines…
The excess broadening of high-temperature spectral lines, long observed near the tops of flare arcades, is widely considered to result from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. According to different theories, plasma turbulence is also…