Particle Acceleration at Shocks: An Introduction
Abstract
These notes present the fundamentals of Fermi acceleration at shocks, with a special attention to the role that supernova remnants have in producing Galactic cosmic rays. Then, the recent discoveries in the theory of diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) that stem from first-principle kinetic plasma simulations are discussed. When ion acceleration is efficient, the back-reaction of non-thermal particles and self-generated magnetic fields becomes prominent and leads to both enhanced shock compression and particle spectra significantly softer than those predicted by the standard test-particle DSA theory. These results are discussed in the context of the non-thermal phenomenology of astrophysical shocks, with a special focus on the remnant of SN1006.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2307.00284,
title = {Particle Acceleration at Shocks: An Introduction},
author = {Damiano Caprioli},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.00284},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
39 pages, 13 figures. Published in "Foundations of Cosmic Ray Astrophysics", Proceedings of the International School of Physics "Enrico Fermi", Course 208, Varenna, 24-29 June 2022, edited by F. Aharonian, E. Amato, and P. Blasi