On the role of magnetosonic solitons in perpendicular collisionless shock reformation

Abstract

The nature of the magnetic structure arising from ion specular reflection in shock compression studies is examined by means of 1d particle in cell simulations. Propagation speed, field profiles and supporting currents for this magnetic structure are shown to be consistent with a magnetosonic soliton. Coincidentally, this structure and its evolution are typical of foot structures observed in perpendicular shock reformation. To reconcile these two observations, we propose, for the first time, that shock reformation can be explained as the result of the formation, growth and subsequent transition to a super-critical shock of a magnetosonic soliton. This argument is further supported by the remarkable agreement found between the period of the soliton evolution cycle and classical reformation results. This new result suggests that the unique properties of solitons can be used to shed new light on the long-standing issue of shock non-stationarity and its role on particle acceleration.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (4)

• The microphysics of collisionless shock waves
• Quasiperpendicular high Mach number Shocks
• Contributions to the cross shock electric field at supercritical perpendicular shocks: Impact of the pickup ions
• Practicality of magnetic compression for plasma density control

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Expansion of a radially symmetric blast shell into a uniformly magnetized plasma
• Excitation of KdV Alfven solitons by a pulsed CO2 laser in plasma in the presence of an external magnetic field
• Emergence of MHD structures in a collisionless PIC simulation plasma
• Cumulative displacement induced by a magnetosonic soliton bouncing in a bounded plasma slab
• Energy and momentum conservation upon reflection of a solitary pulse in a bounded magnetized plasma
• Quasi-perpendicular fast magnetosonic shock with wave precursor in collisionless plasma