Related papers: An eigenfunction method for particle acceleration …
A review of theoretical results on cosmic ray first-order Fermi acceleration at relativistic shock waves is presented, with recent results substantially changing the existing knowledge on these processes. In particular one can not expect…
A high energy power law is a common feature in the spectra of many astrophysical objects. We show that the photons in a relativistic plasma with a variable Lorentz factor go through repeated scattering with electrons to gain energy. The…
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…
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 particle acceleration mechanism by radiation pressure of precursor waves in a relativistic shock is studied. For a relativistic, perpendicular shock with the upstream bulk Lorentz factor of $\gamma_1 \gg 1$, large amplitude…
The present paper is the last of a series studying the first-order Fermi acceleration processes at relativistic shock waves with the method of Monte Carlo simulations applied to shocks propagating in realistically modeled turbulent magnetic…
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…
In highly conducting astrophysical plasmas, charged particles are generically accelerated through Fermi-type processes involving repeated interactions with moving magnetized scattering centers. The present paper proposes a generalized…
Particle acceleration in relativistic shocks of electron-positron plasmas with proton admixture is investigated through two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. The upstream plasma, with a bulk Lorentz factor of $10$ and a…
We consider the acceleration of charged particles in relativistic shearing flows, with Lorentz factor up to $\Gamma_0 \sim 20$. We present numerical solutions to the particle transport equation and compare these with results from analytical…
First-order Fermi acceleration process at a relativistic shock wave is investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations involving numerical integration of particle equations of motion in a turbulent magnetic field near the shock. In…
We investigate the physics of particle acceleration at non-relativistic shocks exploiting two different and complementary approaches, namely a semi-analytic modeling of cosmic-ray modified shocks and large hybrid (kinetic protons/fluid…
The efficiency of particle acceleration at shock waves in relativistic, magnetized astrophysical outflows is a debated topic with far-reaching implications. Here, for the first time, we study the impact of turbulence in the pre-shock…
We consider the acceleration of charged particles at the ultra-relativistic shocks, with Lorentz factors \Gamma_s >> 1 relative to the upstream medium, arising in relativistic fireball models of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We show that for…
The process of cosmic ray first-order Fermi acceleration at relativistic shock waves is studied with the method of Monte Carlo simulations. The simulations are based on numerical integration of particle equations of motion in a turbulent…
Using fully kinetic simulations, we demonstrate that magnetic reconnection in relativistic plasmas is highly efficient at accelerating particles through a first-order Fermi process resulting from the curvature drift of particles in the…
Shocks in astrophysical fluids can generate suprathermal particles by first order (or diffusive) Fermi acceleration. In the test particle regime there is a simple relation between the spectrum of the accelerated particles and the jump…
We report studies on first-order Fermi acceleration in parallel modified shock waves with a large scattering center compression ratio expected from turbulence transmission models. Using a Monte Carlo technique we have modeled particle…
The first-order Fermi acceleration process at an ultra-relativistic shock wave is expected to create a particle spectrum with the unique asymptotic spectral index sigma_{gamma >> 1} approximately 2.2. Below, we discuss this result and…
This paper presents a new method of Monte-Carlo simulations of test particle Fermi acceleration at relativistic shocks. The particle trajectories in tangled magnetic fields are integrated out exactly from entry to exit through the shock,…