Collisionless tangential discontinuity between pair plasma and electron-proton plasma
arXiv:2002.07465 · doi:10.1063/1.5129520
Abstract
We study with a one-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation the expansion of a pair cloud into a magnetized electron-proton plasma as well as the formation and subsequent propagation of a tangential discontinuity that separates both plasmas. Its propagation speed takes the value that balances the magnetic pressure of the discontinuity against the thermal pressure of the pair cloud and the ram pressure of the protons. Protons are accelerated by the discontinuity to a speed that exceeds the fast magnetosonic speed by the factor 10. A supercritical fast magnetosonic shock forms at the front of this beam. An increasing proton temperature downstream of the shock and ahead of the discontinuity leaves the latter intact. We create the discontinuity by injecting a pair cloud at a simulation boundary into a uniform electron-proton plasma, which is permeated by a perpendicular magnetic field. Collisionless tangential discontinuities in the relativistic pair jets of X-ray binaries (microquasars) are in permanent contact with the relativistic leptons of its inner cocoon and they become sources of radio synchrotron emissions.
arXiv comment10 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Physics of Plasmas
References in corpus (19)
- Hot Accretion Flows Around Black Holes
- The propagation of relativistic jets in external media
- On the structure of relativistic collisionless shocks in electron-ion plasmas
- Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Magnetized Collisionless Pair Shocks: Dependence of Shock Acceleration on Magnetic Obliquity
- The microphysics of collisionless shock waves
- Nonthermal Electrons at High Mach Number Shocks: Electron Shock Surfing Acceleration
- On electromagnetic instabilities at ultra-relativistic shock waves
- Positron annihilation signatures associated with the outburst of the microquasar V404 Cygni
- An overview of jets and outflows in stellar mass black holes
- Perpendicular relativistic shocks in magnetized pair plasma
- Experimental observation of a current-driven instability in a neutral electron-positron beam
- Collisionless Weibel shocks: full formation mechanism and timing
- Non thermal emission from microquasar/ISM interaction
- Microquasar interaction with the surrounding medium
- 3D simulations of wind-jet interaction in massive X-ray binaries
- Physics of relativistic collisionless shocks: The scattering center frame
- Structure of a collisionless pair jet in a magnetized electron-proton plasma: flow-aligned magnetic field
- Emergence of MHD structures in a collisionless PIC simulation plasma
- Expansion of a mildly relativistic hot pair cloud into an electron-proton plasma
Cited by in corpus (3)
- Two-dimensional particle simulation of the boundary between a hot pair plasma and magnetized electrons and protons: out-of-plane magnetic field
- Relaxation of a Two Electron-Temperature Relativistic Hot Electron-Positron-Ion Plasma
- Three-dimensional structure and stability of discontinuities between unmagnetized pair plasma and magnetized electron-proton plasma