Related papers: Cosmic Ray Acceleration at Relativistic Shocks
Collisionless shock waves have long been considered amongst the most prolific particle accelerators in the universe. Shocks alter the plasma they propagate through and often exhibit complex evolution across multiple scales. Interplanetary…
This paper summarizes recent progresses in our theoretical understanding of particle acceleration at relativistic shock waves and it discusses two salient consequences: (1) the maximal energy of accelerated particles; (2) the impact of the…
Ab-initio numerical study of collisionless shocks in electron-ion unmagnetized plasmas is performed with fully relativistic particle in cell simulations. The main properties of the shock are shown, focusing on the implications for particle…
Shear flows are ubiquitously present in space and astrophysical plasmas. This paper highlights the central idea of the non-thermal acceleration of charged particles in shearing flows and reviews some of the recent developments. Topics…
In this chapter I give an overview of shock acceleration, including a discussion of the maximum energies possible and the shape of the spectrum near cut-off, interactions of high energy cosmic rays with, and propagation through, the…
The subject of this paper is stochastic acceleration by plasma turbulence, a process akin to the original model proposed by Fermi. We review the relative merits of different acceleration models, in particular the so called first order Fermi…
The theory of diffusive particle acceleration explains the spectral properties of the cosmic rays below energies of approx. 10^6 GeV as produced at strong shocks in supernova remnants (SNR's). To supply the observed flux of cosmic rays, a…
The probability that a particle, crossing the shock along a given direction, be reflected backwards along another direction, was shown to be the key element in determining the spectrum of non--thermal particles accelerated via the Fermi…
Cosmic rays are deemed to be generated by a process known as ``Fermi acceleration", in which charged particles scatter against magnetic fluctuations in astrophysical plasmas. The process itself is however universal, has both classical and…
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…
The dynamical reaction of the particles accelerated at a shock front by the first order Fermi process can be determined within kinetic models that account for both the hydrodynamics of the shocked fluid and the transport of the accelerated…
This review presents the fundamentals of the particle acceleration processes active in interstellar medium (ISM), which are essentially based on the so-called Fermi mechanism theory. More specifically, the review presents here in more…
These notes present the fundamentals of Fermi acceleration at shocks, with a special attention to the role that supernova remnants have in producing Galactic cosmic rays. Then, the recent discoveries in the theory of diffusive shock…
We investigate shock structure and particle acceleration in relativistic magnetized collisionless pair shocks by means of 2.5D and 3D particle-in-cell simulations. We explore a range of inclination angles between the pre-shock magnetic…
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,…
We use fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations with unprecedentedly large transverse box sizes to study particle acceleration in weakly-magnetized mildly relativistic shocks traveling at a velocity $\approx 0.75c$ and a Mach number of…
Matched resolution multi-frequency VLA observations of four radio galaxies are used to derive the asymptotic low energy slope of the relativistic electron distribution. Where available, low energy slopes are also determined for other…
The supernova paradigm for the origin of galactic cosmic rays has been deeply affected by the development of the non-linear theory of particle acceleration at shock waves. Here we discuss the implications of applying such theory to the…
Observations of diffuse radio emission in galaxy clusters indicate that cosmic-ray electrons are accelerated on $\sim$Mpc scales. However, protons appear to be accelerated less efficiently since their associated hadronic $\gamma$-ray…
While a growing body of research indicates that relativistic magnetic reconnection is a prodigious source of particle acceleration in high-energy astrophysical systems, the dominant acceleration mechanism remains controversial. Using a…