Shock formation in electron-ion plasmas: mechanism and timing

Abstract

We analyse the full shock formation process in electron-ion plasmas in theory and simulations. It is accepted that electromagnetic shocks in initially unmagnetised relativistic plasmas are triggered by the filamentation instability. However, the transition from the first unstable phase to the quasi-steady shock is still missing. We derive a theoretical model for the shock formation time, taking into account the filament merging in the non-linear phase of the filamentation instability. This process is much slower than in electron-positron pair shocks, so that the shock formation is longer by a factor proportional to sqrt(m_i/m_e) ln(m_i/m_e).

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• PIC Simulation Methods for Cosmic Radiation and Plasma Instabilities
• Stability analysis of a periodic system of relativistic current filaments
• Microphysics of Relativistic Collisionless Electron-ion-positron Shocks
• Weibel instability driven by spatially anisotropic density structures
• Kinetic inhibition of MHD-shocks in the vicinity of a parallel magnetic field
• Density jump as a function of magnetic field for collisionless shocks in pair plasmas: the perpendicular case
• Hierarchy of instabilities for two counter-streaming magnetized pair beams: influence of field obliquity
• On the Formation and Properties of Fluid Shocks and Collisionless Shock Waves in Astrophysical Plasmas
• Density jump as a function of magnetic field strength for perpendicular collisionless shocks with anisotropic upstream pressure