Related papers: Inductive and Electrostatic Acceleration in Relati…

Multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations are used to study the generation of electrostatic shocks in plasma and the reflection of background ions to produce high-quality and high-energy ion beams. Electrostatic shocks are driven by…

We report on a measurement of collective behavior in a relativistic electron-positron pair plasma produced in the laboratory. Using the Fireball platform at CERN's HiRadMat facility, 440 GeV protons were used to generate an…

We have investigated particle acceleration and shock structure associated with an unmagnetized relativistic jet propagating into an unmagnetized plasma. Strong magnetic fields generated in the trailing jet shock lead to transverse…

Using a 2-1/2-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) code to simulate the relativistic expansion of a magnetized collisionless plasma into a vacuum, we report a new mechanism in which the magnetic energy is efficiently converted into 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…

Particle acceleration in the magnetic reconnection of electron-positron plasmas is studied by using a particle-in-cell simulation. It is found that a significantly large number of nonthermal particles are generated by the inductive electric…

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…

The collision of two expanding plasma clouds is investigated, emphasizing instabilities and electron energization in the plasma mixing layer. This work is directly relevant to laboratory experiments with explosively-created laser or z-pinch…

It is shown that collisionless shock waves can be driven in unmagnetized electron-positron plasmas by performing a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. At the shock transition region, strong magnetic fields are generated by a…

The expansion of a charge-neutral cloud of electrons and positrons with the temperature 1 MeV into an unmagnetized ambient plasma is examined with a 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. The pair outflow drives solitary waves in the ambient…

Magnetic reconnection in relativistic collisionless plasmas can accelerate particles and power high-energy emission in various astrophysical systems. Whereas most previous studies focused on relativistic reconnection in pair plasmas, less…

A new electron acceleration mechanism is identified that develops when a relativistically intense laser irradiates the wedge of an over-dense plasma. This induces a diffracted electromagnetic wave with a significant longitudinal electric…

One of the key open questions in the study of relativistic jets is their interaction with the environment. Here, we study the initial evolution of both electron-proton and electron-positron relativistic jets, focusing on their lateral…

We report experimental evidence that multi-MeV protons accelerated in relativistic laser-plasma interactions are modulated by strong filamentary electromagnetic fields. Modulations are observed when a preplasma is developed on the rear side…

Particle acceleration by means of non-linear plasma wave interactions is of great topical interest. Accordingly, in this paper we focus on the electron surfing process. Self-consistent kinetic simulations, using both relativistic Vlasov and…

We undertake an investigation of particle acceleration in the context of non-linear electrodynamics. We deduce the maximum energy that an electron can gain in a non-linear density wave in a magnetised plasma, and we show that an electron…

Magnetic reconnection is thought to be the driver for many explosive phenomena in the universe. The energy release and particle acceleration during reconnection have been proposed as a mechanism for producing high-energy emissions and…

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 role of the Weibel instability is investigated for the first time in the context of the large-scale magnetic reconnection problem. A late-time evolution of magnetic reconnection in relativistic pair plasmas is demonstrated by…

We present the first three-dimensional fully kinetic electromagnetic relativistic particle-in-cell simulations of the collision of two interpenetrating plasma shells. The highly accurate plasma-kinetic "particle-in-cell" (with the total of…