Time-resolved characterization of the formation of a collisionless shock

Abstract

We report on the temporally and spatially resolved detection of the precursory stages that lead to the formation of an unmagnetized, supercritical collision-less shock in a laser-driven laboratory experiment. The measured evolution of the electrostatic potential associated with the shock unveils the transition from a current free double layer into a symmetric shock structure, stabilized by ion reflection at the shock front. Supported by a matching Particle-In-Cell simulation and theoretical considerations, we suggest that this process is analogeous to ion reflection at supercritical collisionless shocks in supernova remnants.

5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (1)

• Measuring the cosmic ray acceleration efficiency of a supernova remnant

Cited by in corpus (15)

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• Detailed characterization of laboratory magnetized super-critical collisionless shock and of the associated proton energization