Related papers: Inductive and Electrostatic Acceleration in Relati…
In magnetized astrophysical outflows, the dissipation of field energy into particle energy via magnetic reconnection is often invoked to explain the observed non-thermal signatures. By means of two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell…
We propose a new approach to high-intensity relativistic laser-driven electron acceleration in a plasma. Here, we demonstrate that a plasma wave generated by a stimulated forward-scattering of an incident laser pulse can be in the longest…
Plasma processes close to SNR shocks result in the amplification of magnetic fields and in the acceleration of electrons, injecting them into the diffusive acceleration mechanism. The acceleration of electrons and the B field amplification…
In the study of relativistic jets one of the key open questions is their interaction with the environment on the microscopic level. Here, we study the initial evolution of both electron$-$proton ($e^{-}-p^{+}$) and electron$-$positron…
We investigate the acceleration of light particles in perpendicular shocks for plasmas consisting of a mixture of leptonic and hadronic particles. Starting from the full set of conservation equations for the mixed plasma constituents, we…
The properties of relativistic jets, their interaction with the environment, and their emission of radiation can be self-consistently studied by using collisionless particle-in-cell (PIC) numerical simulations. Using three-dimensional (3D),…
Positron creation and acceleration is one of the major challenges for constructing future lepton colliders. On the one hand, conventional technology can provide a solution, but at a prohibitive cost and scale. On the other hand,…
We investigate by particle-in-cell simulations in two and three dimensions the laser-plasma interaction and the proton acceleration in multilayer targets where a low density "near-critical" layer of a few micron thickness is added on the…
Electrostatic oscillations in cold electron-positron plasmas can be coupled to a propagating electromagnetic mode if the background magnetic field is inhomogeneous. Previous work considered this coupling in the quasi-linear regime,…
Experiments with interacting high-velocity flows of laser plasma can help answer the fundamental questions in plasma physics and improve the understanding of the mechanisms behind astrophysical phenomena, such as formation of collisionless…
We investigate electron acceleration resulting from 3D magnetic reconnection between an emerging, twisted magnetic flux rope and a pre-existing weak, open magnetic field. We first follow the rise of an unstable, twisted flux tube with a…
Ab initio simulations of the propagation in a plasma of a soon to be available relativistic electron-positron beam or fireball beam provide an effective mean for the study of microphysics relevant to astrophysical scenarios. We show that…
The growth rate of long wavelength kinetic instabilities arising due to the interaction of a collimated beam of relativistic particles and a cold unmagnetized plasma are calculated in the ultra relativistic limit. For sufficiently…
We present the results from a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation that models the interaction between a spatially localized electron-positron cloud and an electron-ion plasma. The latter is permeated by a magnetic field that is initially…
When a moderately intense, few-picoseconds long laser pulse ionizes gas to produce an underdense plasma column, a linear relativistic plasma wave or wake can be excited by the self-modulation instability that may prove useful for…
This dissertation explores the interaction between high-intensity lasers and plasmas to accelerate electrons and produce radiation via experimental and computational efforts. The laser pulses used in this dissertation have ultrashort…
We have investigated how kinetic instabilities such as the Weibel instability (WI), the mushroom instability (MI), and the kinetic Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (kKHI) are excited in jets without and with a toroidal magnetic field, and how…
Magnetic reconnection is a leading mechanism for dissipating magnetic energy and accelerating nonthermal particles in Poynting-flux dominated flows. In this letter, we investigate nonthermal particle acceleration during magnetic…
Processes driven by unsteady reconnection can efficiently accelerate particles in many astrophysical plasmas. An example are the reconnection jet fronts in an outflow region. We present evidence of suprathermal ion acceleration between two…
Using particle-in-cell simulations to study fast radio burst (FRB) propagation in a tenuous plasma, we identified a novel mechanism that occurs during the growth of turbulent magnetic loops: electron penetration acceleration. The loops have…