Related papers: Particle acceleration in relativistic current shee…
Plasma outflows from gamma-ray bursts (GRB), pulsar winds, relativistic jets, and ultra-intense laser targets radiate high energy photons. However, radiation damping is ignored in conventional PIC simulations. In this letter, we study the…
We consider the stochastic acceleration of particles which results from resonant interactions with plasma waves in black hole magnetospheres. We calculate acceleration rates and escape time scales for protons and electrons resonating with…
Due to its ubiquitous presence, turbulence is often invoked to explain the origin of nonthermal particles in astrophysical sources of high-energy emission. With particle-in-cell simulations, we study decaying turbulence in…
Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel and other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks are responsible for particle…
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…
Counterpropagating Alfv\'en waves are ubiquitously observed in many astrophysical environments, such as a star surface and a planetary foreshock. We discuss an efficient particle acceleration mechanism in two counterpropagating circularly…
Almost all sources of high energy particles and photons are associated with jet phenomena. Prominent sources of such highly relativistic outflows are pulsar winds and Active Galactic Nuclei. The current understanding of these jets assumes…
The interaction between a thin foil target and a circularly polarized laser light injected along an external magnetic field is investigated numerically by particle-in-cell simulations. A standing wave appears at the front surface of the…
Two-dimensional relativistic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of radiative magnetic reconnection in pair plasmas with multiple interacting current sheets are carried out to mimic the dynamics in high-energy astrophysical environments,…
We consider the radiative acceleration to relativistic bulk velocities of a cold, optically thin plasma which is exposed to an external source of gamma-rays. The flow is driven by radiative momentum input to the gas, the accelerating force…
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…
Theoretical concepts ofn cosmic ray particle acceleration at relativistic plasma flows -- shocks and shear layers -- are reviewed. We begin with a discussion of mildly relativistic shock waves. The role of oblique field configurations and…
lasma instabilities excited in collisionless shocks are responsible for particle acceleration. We have investigated the particle acceleration and shock structure associated with an unmagnetized relativistic electron-positron jet propagating…
We consider the acceleration of particles (protons) in a plasma clot by an induced field which appears due to the dissolving of the clot. The mechanism of this acceleration is based on a model where the clot consists of double flat moving…
We report the results of 1D particle-in-cell simulations of ultrarelativistic shock waves in proton-electron-positron plasmas. We consider magnetized shock waves, in which the upstream medium carries a large scale magnetic field, directed…
We consider the acceleration of particles due to a velocity shear in relativistic astrophysical flows. The basic physical picture and the formation of power law momentum spectra is discussed for a non-relativistic velocity field using a…
The acceleration of energetic particles in astrophysical shear flows is analyzed. We show that in the presence of a non-relativistic gradual velocity shear, power law particle momentum distributions $f(p) \propto p^{-(3+\alpha)}$ may be…
(Abbreviated) Particle-in-cell simulations of relativistic, weakly magnetized collisionless shocks show that particles can gain energy by repeatedly crossing the shock front. This requires scattering off self-generated small length-scale…
We discuss processes accelerating cosmic ray electrons at boundaries of relativistic jets. The resulting spectrum is expected to posses two characteristic components: a power-law distribution at lower energies and a harder high energy…
Strong magnetically dominated Alfv\'enic turbulence is an efficient engine of non-thermal particle acceleration in a relativistic collisionless plasma. We argue that in the limit of strong magnetization, the type of energy distribution…