Related papers: Stochastic Acceleration in Turbulent Electric Fiel…
We report on an effort to study the connections between dynamics in simulated radio galaxy plasma flows and the properties of nonthermal electron populations carried in those flows. To do this we have introduced a new numerical scheme for…
We use particle-in-magnetohydrodynamics-cells to model particle acceleration and magnetic field amplification in a high Mach, parallel shock in three dimensions and compare the result to 2-D models. This allows us to determine whether 2-D…
Electron motion in an oblique shock wave is studied by means of a one-dimensional, relativistic, electromagnetic, particle simulation code with full ion and electron dynamics. It is found that an oblique shock can produce electrons with…
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental mechanism of driving eruptive phenomena of different scales and may be coupled with turbulence as suggested by recent remote-sensing and in-situ observations. However, the specific physics behind the…
Astrophysical fluids are generically turbulent, which means that frozen-in magnetic fields are, at least, weakly stochastic. Therefore realistic studies of astrophysical magnetic reconnection should include the effects of stochastic…
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma process associated with conversion of the embedded magnetic field energy into kinetic and thermal plasma energy, via bulk acceleration and Ohmic dissipation. In many high-energy astrophysical…
In turbulent magnetized plasmas, charged particles can be accelerated to high energies through their interactions with the turbulent motions. As they do so, they draw energy from the turbulence, possibly up to the point where they start…
We present initial results from the first 3-dimensional numerical magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of magnetic field evolution in merging clusters of galaxies. Within the framework of idealized initial conditions similar to our…
The work extends the computational model EULAG-MHD to include Hall magnetohydrodynamics (HMHD)---important to explore physical systems undergoing fast magnetic reconnection at the order of the ion inertial length scale. Examples include…
By means of fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we study whether the proton-to-electron mass ratio $m_i/m_e$ influences the energy spectrum and underlying acceleration mechanism during magnetic reconnection. While kinetic…
The linear and nonlinear evolution of magnetic reconnection in collisionless high-temperature plasmas with a strong guide field is analyzed on the basis of a two-dimensional gyrofluid model. The linear growth rate of the reconnecting…
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…
Using 3D particle-in-cell simulation, we characterize energy conversion, as a function of guide magnetic field, in a thin current sheet in semirelativistic plasma, with relativistic electrons and subrelativistic protons. There, magnetic…
Powerful stellar winds and supernova explosions with intense energy release in the form of strong shock waves can convert a sizeable part of the kinetic energy release into energetic particles. The starforming regions are argued as a…
Electron heating and mixing during asymmetric reconnection are studied with a 3D kinetic simulation that matches plasma parameters from Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft observations of a magnetopause diffusion region. The mixing…
The first self-consistent simulations of electron acceleration during magnetic reconnection in a macroscale system are presented. Consistent with solar flare observations the spectra of energetic electrons take the form of power-laws that…
In an idealized system where four current channels interact in a two-dimensional periodic setting, we follow the detailed evolution of current sheets (CSs) forming in between the channels, as a result of a large-scale merging. A central…
Hybrid-Vlasov-Maxwell simulations of magnetized plasma turbulence including non-linear electron-inertia effects in a generalized Ohm's law are presented. When fluctuation energy is injected on scales sufficiently close to ion-kinetic…
3D kinetic-scale turbulence is studied numerically in the regime where electrons are strongly magnetized (the ratio of plasma species pressure to magnetic pressure is $\beta_e=0.1$ for electrons and $\beta_i=1$ for ions). Such a regime is…
Magnetic reconnection is a leading mechanism for magnetic energy conversion and high-energy non-thermal particle production in a variety of high-energy astrophysical objects, including ones with relativistic ion-electron plasmas (e.g.,…