Pre-acceleration in the Electron Foreshock II: Oblique Whistler Waves
arXiv:2301.00872 · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acaec8
Abstract
Thermal electrons have gyroradii many orders of magnitude smaller than the finite width of a shock, thus need to be pre-accelerated before they can cross it and be accelerated by diffusive shock acceleration. One region where pre-acceleration may occur is the inner foreshock, which upstream electrons must pass through before any potential downstream crossing. In this paper, we perform a large scale particle-in-cell simulation that generates a single shock with parameters motivated from supernova remnants. Within the foreshock, reflected electrons excite the oblique whistler instability and produce electromagnetic whistler waves, which co-move with the upstream flow and as non-linear structures eventually reach radii of up to 5 ion-gyroradii. We show that the inner electromagnetic configuration of the whistlers evolves into complex non-linear structures bound by a strong magnetic field around 4 times the upstream value. Although these non-linear structures do not in general interact with co-spatial upstream electrons, they resonate with electrons that have been reflected at the shock. We show that they can scatter, or even trap, reflected electrons, confining around of the total upstream electron population to the region close to the shock where they can undergo substantial pre-acceleration. This acceleration process is similar to, yet approximately 3 times more efficient than, stochastic shock drift acceleration.
arXiv comment16 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
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