Noncoplanar magnetic field in the collisionless shock front

1996 ◽  
Vol 101 (A5) ◽  
pp. 11153-11156 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Gedalin
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Shock Front ◽  
Collisionless Shock

scholarly journals Relativistic Particle Acceleration in Plerions

1994 ◽  
Vol 142 ◽  
pp. 797-806
Author(s):  
Jonathan Arons ◽  
Marco Tavani
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Particle Acceleration ◽  
Shock Waves ◽  
Shock Front ◽  
Heavy Ions ◽  
Surface Brightness ◽  
Crab Nebula ◽  
Electrons And Positrons ◽  
The Crab Nebula ◽  
The Magnetic Field

AbstractWe discuss recent research on the structure and particle acceleration properties of relativistic shock waves in which the magnetic field is transverse to the flow direction in the upstream medium, and whose composition is either pure electrons and positrons or primarily electrons and positrons with an admixture of heavy ions. Particle-in-cell simulation techniques as well as analytic theory have been used to show that such shocks in pure pair plasmas are fully thermalized—the downstream particle spectra are relativistic Maxwellians at the temperature expected from the jump conditions. On the other hand, shocks containing heavy ions which are a minority constituent by number but which carry most of the energy density in the upstream medium do put ~20% of the flow energy into a nonthermal population of pairs downstream, whose distribution in energy space is N(E) ∝ E−2, where N(E)dE is the number of particles with energy between E and E + dE.The mechanism of thermalization and particle acceleration is found to be synchrotron maser activity in the shock front, stimulated by the quasi-coherent gyration of the whole particle population as the plasma flowing into the shock reflects from the magnetic field in the shock front. The synchrotron maser modes radiated by the heavy ions are absorbed by the pairs at their (relativistic) cyclotron frequencies, allowing the maximum energy achievable by the pairs to be γ±m±c2 = mic2γ1/Zi, where γ1 is the Lorentz factor of the upstream flow and Zi, is the atomic number of the ions. The shock’s spatial structure is shown to contain a series of “overshoots” in the magnetic field, regions where the gyrating heavy ions compress the magnetic field to levels in excess of the eventual downstream value.This shock model is applied to an interpretation of the structure of the inner regions of the Crab Nebula, in particular to the “wisps,” surface brightness enhancements near the pulsar. We argue that these surface brightness enhancements are the regions of magnetic overshoot, which appear brighter because the small Larmor radius pairs are compressed and radiate more efficiently in the regions of more intense magnetic field. This interpretation suggests that the structure of the shock terminating the pulsar’s wind in the Crab Nebula is spatially resolved, and allows one to measure γ1, and a number of other properties of the pulsar’s wind. We also discuss applications of the shock theory to the termination shocks of the winds from rotation-powered pulsars embedded in compact binaries. We show that this model adequately accounts for (and indeed predicted) the recently discovered X-ray flux from PSR 1957+20, and we discuss several other applications to other examples of these systems.Subject headings: acceleration of particles — ISM: individual (Crab Nebula) — relativity — shock waves

scholarly journals Periodic self-reformation of rippled perpendicular collisionless shocks in two dimensions

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 1047-1055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takayuki Umeda ◽  
Yuki Daicho
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Shock Front ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Large Mass ◽  
Small Mass ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Electron Mass ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Ion Cyclotron ◽  
Mass Ratios

Abstract. Large-scale two-dimensional (2-D) full particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are carried out for studying periodic self-reformation of a supercritical collisionless perpendicular shock with an Alfvén–Mach number MA∼6. Previous self-consistent one-dimensional (1-D) hybrid and full PIC simulations have demonstrated that the periodic reflection of upstream ions at the shock front is responsible for the formation and vanishing of the shock-foot region on a timescale of the local ion cyclotron period, which was defined as the reformation of (quasi-)perpendicular shocks. The present 2-D full PIC simulations with different ion-to-electron mass ratios show that the dynamics at the shock front is strongly modified by large-amplitude ion-scale fluctuations at the shock overshoot, which are known as ripples. In the run with a small mass ratio, the simultaneous enhancement of the shock magnetic field and the reflected ions take place quasi-periodically, which is identified as the reformation. In the runs with large mass ratios, the simultaneous enhancement of the shock magnetic field and the reflected ions occur randomly in time, and the shock magnetic field is enhanced on a timescale much shorter than the ion cyclotron period. These results indicate a coupling between the shock-front ripples and electromagnetic microinstabilities in the foot region in the runs with large mass ratios. Keywords. Space plasma physics (wave–particle interactions)

On the noncoplanarity of the magnetic field within a fast collisionless shock

1987 ◽  
Vol 92 (A3) ◽  
pp. 2305 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. F. Thomsen ◽  
J. T. Gosling ◽  
S. J. Bame ◽  
K. B. Quest ◽  
D. Winske ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Collisionless Shock ◽  
The Magnetic Field

A model for precursor structure in supercritical perpendicular, collisionless shock waves

1978 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-279
Author(s):  
D. Sherwell ◽  
R. A. Cairns
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Shock Waves ◽  
Wave Velocity ◽  
Current Distribution ◽  
Trapped Ions ◽  
Collisionless Shock ◽  
Precursor Structure ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
A Current

Magnetosonic solitons may be given smooth increasing profiles by assuming the presence within the wave of a current distribution Jy(x) of trapped ions perpendicular to Bz(x) and the wave velocity Vx. Suitable ions are found immediately upstream of perpendicular, collisionless shock waves and these are coincident with the often observed ‘foot’ in magnetic field profiles of moderately supercritical shocks. By modelling Jy(x) we apply the theory to previous experiments where Jy(x) is observed, and are able to reproduce reasonably, and thus explain, the profiles in the foot. Insight into a number of features of fast shocks is obtained.

On the structure of collisionless waves

1969 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
James B. Fedele
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Applied Magnetic Field ◽  
Small Amplitude ◽  
Single Mode ◽  
Larmor Radius ◽  
Collisionless Shock ◽  
Finite Larmor Radius ◽  
First Order ◽  
Pulse Solution ◽  
Solitary Pulse

Small amplitude waves and collisionless shock waves are investigated within the framework of the first-order Chew—Goldberger—Low equations. For linearized oscillations, two modes are present for propagation along an applied magnetic field. One is an acoustic type which contains no finite Larmor radius effects. The other which contains the ‘fire hose’ instability in its lowest order terms, does possess finite Larmor radius corrections. These corrections, however, do not produce instabilities or dissipation. There are no finite Larmor radius corrections to the single mode present for propagation normal to the applied magnetic field. Normal shock structure is investigated, but it is shown that jump solutions do not exist. An analytic solitary pulse solution is found and is compared with the Adlam—Allen pulse solution.

scholarly journals Evidence of the Nonstationarity of the Terrestrial Bow Shock from Multi-Spacecraft Observations: Methodology, Results and Quantitative Comparison with PIC Simulations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Mazelle ◽  
Bertrand Lembege
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Lower Bound ◽  
Data Processing ◽  
Shock Front ◽  
Upper Bound ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Bow Shock ◽  
Time Variability

Abstract. The nonstationarity of the terrestrial bow shock is analyzed in detail from in situ magnetic field measurements issued from the FGM experiment on board of Cluster mission. Attention is focused on statistical analysis of quasiperpendicular supercritical shock crossings. The present analysis stresses for the first time the importance of a careful and accurate methodology in the data processing which can be a source of confusion/misunderstanding if not treated properly. The analysis performed using 96 shock front crossings shows evidence of a strong variability of the microstructures of the shock front (foot and ramp) which are analyzed in deep details. Main results are: (i) most statistics clearly evidence that the ramp thickness is very narrow and can be as low as a few c/ωpe (electron inertia length), (ii) the width is narrower when the angle θBn (between the shock normal and the upstream magnetic field) approaches 90°, (iii) the foot thickness strongly varies but its variation has an upper limit provided by theoretical estimates given in previous studies (e.g., Schwartz et al., 1983; Gosling and Thomsen, 1985; Gosling and Robson, 1985); (iv) the presence of foot and overshoot, as shown in all front profiles confirms the importance of dissipative effects. Present results indicate that these features can be signatures of the shock front self-reformation among a few mechanisms of nonstationarity identified from numerical simulation/theoretical works. A comparison 2D PIC simulation for a perpendicular supercritical shock (used as reference), has been performed and it shows that: (a) the ramp thickness varies only slightly in time over a large fraction of the reformation cycle and reaches a lower bound value of the order of a few electron inertial length, (ii) in contrast, the foot width strongly varies during a self-reformation cycle but always stays lower than an upper bound value in agreement with the value given by Woods (1971), and (iii) as a consequence, the time variability of the whole shock front is depending on both ramp and foot variations. Moreover, a detailed comparative analysis shows that much elements of analysis were missing in previous reported works concerning both (i) the important criteria used in the data selection and (ii) the different and careful steps of the methodology used in the data processing itself. This absence of these precise elements of analysis makes the comparison with present work difficult, worse, it makes some final results and conclusive statements quite questionable at present time. A least, looking for a precise estimate of the shock transition thickness presents nowadays a restricted interest, since recent results show that the terrestrial shock is rather nonstationary and one unique typical spatial scaling of the microstructures of the front (ramp, foot) must be replaced by some variation ranges (with lower bound/upper bound values) within which the spatial scales of the fine structures can extend.

Improvement of proton acceleration via collisionless shock acceleration by laser-foil interaction with an external magnetic field

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 123102
Author(s):  
R. Xie ◽  
L. H. Cao ◽  
J. X. Gong ◽  
H. Cheng ◽  
Z. J. Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
External Magnetic Field ◽  
Shock Acceleration ◽  
Collisionless Shock ◽  
Proton Acceleration
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