Related papers: A relativistic partially electromagnetic planar pl…
Energetic electromagnetic emissions by astrophysical jets like those that are launched during the collapse of a massive star and trigger gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are partially attributed to relativistic internal shocks. The shocks are…
The process of transition excitation of an electromagnetic field by a relativistic electron bunch in a plasma half-space is investigated. The influence of the plasma boundary on the spatial structure of plasma wake oscillations is studied.…
The physics of plasmas containing positive and negative ions is discussed with special attention to the recently produced pair-ion plasma containing ions of equal mass and opposite charge. The effects of the density gradient in the…
Collisionless shocks generated by two colliding relativistic electron-positron plasma shells are studied using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. Shocks are mediated by the Weibel instability (WI), and the kinetic energy of the fastest…
The outflows from gamma ray bursts, active galactic nuclei and relativistic jets in general interact with the surrounding media through collisionless shocks. With three dimensional relativistic particle-in-cell simulations we investigate…
While collisionless plasmas are ubiquitously present near astrophysical compact objects, the impact that their composition has on the high-energy emission is presently unknown. We present the first investigation of particle-acceleration…
We present experimental results of vacuum laser acceleration (VLA) of electrons using radially polarized laser pulses interacting with a plasma mirror. Tightly focused radially polarized laser pulses have been proposed for electron…
The interaction of partially ionized plasmas with an electromagnetic field is investigated using quantum statistical methods. A general statistical expression for the current density of a plasma in an electromagnetic field is presented and…
Thermal electrons cannot directly participate in the process of diffusive acceleration at electron-ion shocks because their Larmor radii are smaller than the shock transition width: this is the well-known electron injection problem of…
Electron and ion energization (i.e., heating and nonthermal acceleration) is a fundamental, but poorly understood, outcome of plasma turbulence. In this work, we present new results on this topic from particle-in-cell simulations of driven…
Internal shocks between propagating plasma shells, originally ejected at different times with different velocities are believed to play a major role in dissipating the kinetic energy, thereby explaining the observed lightcurve and spectra…
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…
We use multi-spacecraft Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations to investigate electric fields and ion reflection at a non-stationary collisionless perpendicular plasma shock. We identify sub-proton scale (5-10 electron inertial…
We present the first laboratory observations of time-resolved electron and ion velocity distributions in forming, magnetized collisionless shocks. Thomson scattering of a probe laser beam was used to observe the interaction of a…
We examine with a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation the collision of two equally dense clouds of cold pair plasma. The clouds interpenetrate until instabilities set in, which heat up the plasma and trigger the formation of a pair of shocks.…
Relativistic plasmas in strong electromagnetic fields exhibit distinct properties compared to classical plasmas. In astrophysical environments, such as neutron stars, white dwarfs, AGNs, and shocks, relativistic plasmas are pervasive and…
We propose a new approach to high-intensity 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 a longest acceleration…
Collisionless shocks are ubiquitous in the Universe and are held responsible for the production of non-thermal particles and high-energy radiation. In the absence of particle collisions in the system, theoretical works show that the…
Intense laser-plasma interactions are an essential tool for the laboratory study of ion acceleration at a collisionless shock. With two-dimensional particle-in-cell calculations of a multicomponent plasma we observe two electrostatic…
In addition to electrons and protons, nonrelativistic quasiparallel shocks are expected to possess the ability to accelerate heavy ions. The shocks in supernova remnants are generally supposed to be accelerators of the Galactic cosmic rays,…