Kinetic simulation of nonrelativistic perpendicular shocks of young supernova remnants. IV. Electron heating

Abstract

High Mach number collisionless shocks are found in planetary systems and supernova remnants (SNRs). Electrons are heated at these shocks to the temperature well above the Rankine-Hugoniot prediction. However processes responsible for electron heating are still not well understood. We use a set of large-scale Particle-In-Cell simulations of non-relativistic shocks in high Mach number regime to clarify the electron heating processes. The physics of these shocks is defined by ion reflection at the shock ramp. Further interaction of the reflected ions and the upstream plasma excites electrostatic Buneman and two-stream ion-ion Weibel instabilities. Electrons are heated via shock surfing acceleration, the shock potential, magnetic reconnection, stochastic Fermi scattering and the shock compression. The main contributor is the shock potential. Magnetic field lines are tangled due to the Weibel instability, which allows the parallel electron heating by the shock potential. The constrained model of the electron heating predicts the ion-to-electron temperature ratio within observed values at SNR shocks and in Saturn's bow shock.

arXiv comment10 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (15)

• Nonthermal Electrons at High Mach Number Shocks: Electron Shock Surfing Acceleration
• Production of Magnetic Turbulence by Cosmic Rays Drifting Upstream of Supernova Remnant Shocks
• Electron-Ion Temperature Equilibration in Collisionless Shocks: the Supernova Remnant-Solar Wind Connection
• Spatial Structure and Collisionless Electron Heating in Balmer-dominated Shocks
• Electron Shock Surfing Acceleration in Multidimensions: Two-dimensional Particle-In-Cell Simulation of Collisionless Perpendicular Shock
• Electron Surfing and Drift Accelerations in a Weibel-dominated High-Mach-number Shock
• Nonrelativistic collisionless shocks in weakly magnetized electron--ion plasmas: two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation of perpendicular shock
• On the electron-ion temperature ratio established by collisionless shocks
• Electron-Ion Temperature Equilibration at Collisionless Shocks in Supernova Remnants
• Electron Pre-Acceleration at Nonrelativistic High-Mach-Number Perpendicular Shocks
• Kinetic simulations of nonrelativistic perpendicular shocks of young supernova remnants. III. Magnetic reconnection
• Kinetic simulations of nonrelativistic perpendicular shocks of young supernova remnants. I. Electron shock-surfing acceleration
• Non-relativistic perpendicular shocks modeling young supernova remnants: nonstationary dynamics and particle acceleration at forward and reverse shocks
• Electron Heating in Perpendicular Low-Beta Shocks
• Kinetic simulations of nonrelativistic perpendicular shocks of young supernova remnants. II. Influence of shock-surfing acceleration on downstream electron spectra

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Magnetic field amplification by the Weibel instability at planetary and astrophysical high-Mach-number shocks
• Electron-Ion Temperature Ratio in Astrophysical Shocks
• Inside the core of a young massive star cluster: 3D MHD simulations
• Pre-acceleration in the Electron Foreshock I: Electron Acoustic Waves
• Electron acceleration at supernova remnants
• Cosmic-ray electrons released by supernova remnants
• Pre-acceleration in the Electron Foreshock II: Oblique Whistler Waves
• Saturation of the asymmetric current filamentation instability under conditions relevant to relativistic shock precursors
• In-situ Measurement of the Energy Fraction in Supra-thermal and Energetic Particles at ACE, Wind, and PSP Interplanetary Shocks
• Efficient generation of turbulent collisionless shocks in laser-ablated counter-streaming plasmas
• Evidence for powerful winds and the associated reverse shock as the origin of the Fermi bubbles
• The structure of cluster merger shocks: turbulent width and the electron heating timescale