Related papers: Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Flows
Stochastic particle acceleration in turbulent plasmas plays a key role in shaping high-energy emission from relativistic outflows, such as those in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and microquasars. While traditional Fermi-II models provide a…
The acceleration of charged particles at astrophysical collisionless shock waves is one of the best studied processes for the energization of particles to ultrarelativistic energies, required by multifrequency observations in a variety of…
We consider the acceleration of charged particles near ultra-relativistic shocks, with Lorentz factor Gamma_s >> 1. We present simulations of the acceleration process and compare these with results from semi-analytical calculations. We show…
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…
Two-dimensional particle simulations of a relativistic Harris current sheet of pair plasmashave demonstrated that the system is unstable to the relativistic drift kink instability (RDKI) and that a new kind of acceleration process takes…
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…
We present evidence that relativistic shocks propagating in unmagnetized plasmas can self-consistently accelerate particles. We use long-term two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to study the well-developed shock structure in…
The physics of particle acceleration in turbulent plasmas is a topic of broad interest, which is making rapid progress thanks to dedicated, large-scale numerical experiments. The first part of this paper presents an effective theory of…
The discovery of the Fermi bubbles---a huge bilobular structure seen in GeV gamma-rays above and below the Galactic center---implies the presence of a large reservoir of high energy particles at $\sim 10 \, \text{kpc}$ from the disk. The…
First-order Fermi acceleration processes at ultrarelativistic shocks are studied with Monte Carlo simulations. The accelerated particle spectra are obtained by integrating the exact particle trajectories in a turbulent magnetic field near…
Merger and accretion shocks in clusters of galaxies can accelerate particles via first order Fermi process. Since this mechanism is believed to be intrinsically efficient, shocks are expected to be modified by the backreaction of the…
(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…
After a successful development of theoretical and numerical works on Fermi acceleration at relativistic shocks, some difficulties recently raised with the scattering issue, a crucial aspect of the process. Most pioneering works were…
The first-order Fermi acceleration of electrons requires an injection of electrons into a mildly relativistic energy range. However, the mechanism of injection has remained a puzzle both in theory and observation. We present direct evidence…
We consider the acceleration of energetic particles by Fermi processes (i.e., diffusive shock acceleration, second order Fermi acceleration, and gradual shear acceleration) in relativistic astrophysical jets, with particular attention given…
Magnetic reconnection in the relativistic regime has been proposed as an important process for the efficient production of nonthermal particles and high-energy emissions. Using fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate how…
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…
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 propose a new way of quick and very efficient acceleration of protons and/or electrons in relativistic bulk flows. The new mechanism takes advantage of conversion of particles from the charged state (protons or electrons/positrons) into…
Particle acceleration at plasma shocks appears to be ubiquitous in the universe, spanning systems in the heliosphere, supernova remnants, and relativistic jets in distant active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts. This review addresses some of…