Corrugation of relativistic magnetized shock waves

Abstract

As a shock front interacts with turbulence, it develops corrugation which induces outgoing wave modes in the downstream plasma. For a fast shock wave, the incoming wave modes can either be fast magnetosonic waves originating from downstream, outrunning the shock, or eigenmodes of the upstream plasma drifting through the shock. Using linear perturbation theory in relativistic MHD, this paper provides a general analysis of the corrugation of relativistic magnetized fast shock waves resulting from their interaction with small amplitude disturbances. Transfer functions characterizing the linear response for each of the outgoing modes are calculated as a function of the magnetization of the upstream medium and as a function of the nature of the incoming wave. Interestingly, if the latter is an eigenmode of the upstream plasma, we find that there exists a resonance at which the (linear) response of the shock becomes large or even diverges. This result may have profound consequences on the phenomenology of astrophysical relativistic magnetized shock waves.

arXiv comment14 pages, 9 figures; to appear in ApJ

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• Relativistic magnetohydrodynamical simulations of the resonant corrugation of a fast shock front
• Spectra of magnetic turbulence in a relativistic plasma
• Spatial intermittency of particle distribution in relativistic plasma turbulence
• X-ray polarization: A view deep inside cosmic ray driven turbulence and particle acceleration in supernova remnants
• Relativistic oblique shocks with ordered or random magnetic fields: tangential field governs
• Building a weak shockwave from linear modes
• Particle Acceleration in Colliding Flows: Binary Star Winds and Other Double-Shock Structures
• Superluminal Wave Activation at Relativistic Magnetized Shocks
• Particle acceleration to PeV energies in Pulsar Wind Nebula: a two zone model