Non-thermal particle acceleration at highly oblique non-relativistic shocks

Abstract

The non-thermal acceleration of electrons and ions at an oblique, non-relativistic shock is studied using large scale particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations in one spatial dimension. Physical parameters are selected to highlight the role of electron pre-heating in injection and subsequent acceleration of particles at high Mach number shocks. Simulation results show evidence for the early onset of the diffusive shock acceleration process for both electrons and ions at a highly oblique subluminal shock. Ion acceleration efficiencies of $\lesssim 5\%$ are measured at late times, though this is not the saturated value.

Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

References in corpus (12)

• Teraelectronvolt Astronomy
• Simultaneous Acceleration of Protons and Electrons at Nonrelativistic Quasiparallel Collisionless Shocks
• Non-Thermal Electron Acceleration in Low Mach Number Collisionless Shocks. I. Particle Energy Spectra and Acceleration Mechanism
• Simulations of Ion Acceleration at Non-relativistic Shocks. III. Particle Diffusion
• A critical Mach number for electron injection in collisionless shocks
• Electron Pre-Acceleration at Nonrelativistic High-Mach-Number Perpendicular Shocks
• The Acceleration of Electrons at Collisionless Shocks Moving Through a Turbulent Magnetic Field
• A Comparison of X-ray and Optical Emission in Cassiopeia A
• Kinetic simulations of nonrelativistic perpendicular shocks of young supernova remnants. I. Electron shock-surfing acceleration
• Particle acceleration and wave excitation in quasi-parallel high-Mach-number collisionless shocks: Particle-in-cell simulation
• Mildly relativistic magnetized shocks in electron-ion plasmas -- II. Particle acceleration and heating
• Electron Energization in Quasi-Parallel Shocks: Test-Particle-Electrons in a Proton Driven Turbulence

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Thermal Electrons in Mildly-relativistic Synchrotron Blast-waves
• Pre-acceleration in the Electron Foreshock I: Electron Acoustic Waves
• Electron acceleration at supernova remnants
• Pre-acceleration in the Electron Foreshock II: Oblique Whistler Waves
• Diffusive shock acceleration at oblique high Mach number shocks
• Stellar-wind feedback and magnetic fields around young compact star clusters: 3D MHD simulations
• Escape of cosmic rays from perpendicular shocks in the circumstellar magnetic field
• Criteria for ion acceleration in laboratory magnetized quasi-perpendicular collisionless shocks: when are 2D simulations enough?
• Energy Dissipation in Strong Collisionless Shocks: The Crucial Role of Ion-to-Electron Scale Separation in Particle-in-Cell Simulations
• Kinetic Simulation on Electron, Proton and Helium Acceleration in a Nonrelativistic Quasiparallel shock
• The electron foreshock at high-Mach-number nonrelativistic oblique shocks
• The mechanism of efficient electron acceleration at parallel non-relativistic shocks