Saturation Level of Ion Weibel Instability and Isotropization Length Scale in Electron-Ion Weibel-Mediated Shocks
arXiv:2405.00462 · doi:10.1093/mnras/stae1187
Abstract
Ion Weibel instability is considered to be the dominant physics for the dissipation in high-Mach number astrophysical shocks such as supernova remnant shocks and gamma-ray burst shocks. We study the instability dependence on various parameters using theory and particle-in-cell simulations. We demonstrate that electron physics determines the saturation level of the Weibel-generated magnetic field, even though the instability is driven by the ions. We discuss the application to astrophysical and laboratory laser experiment environments to clarify the roles of the ion Weibel instability. We develop a model for the isotropization length scale in Weibel-mediated shocks and compare its value to other characteristic length scales of each system. We find that electron heating to near equipartition is crucial for the formation of ultra-relativistic Weibel-mediated shocks. On the other hand, our results imply that non-relativistic shocks in typical interstellar medium are not purely mediated by the Weibel instability.
Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 11 pages, 15 figures
References in corpus (15)
- Particle acceleration in relativistic collisionless shocks: Fermi process at last?
- On the structure of relativistic collisionless shocks in electron-ion plasmas
- Saturation mechanism of the Weibel instability in weakly magnetized plasmas
- Relativistic Collisionless Shocks in Unmagnetized Electron-Positron Plasmas
- The afterglow of a relativistic shock breakout and low-luminosity GRBs
- Magnetic field amplification by the Weibel instability at planetary and astrophysical high-Mach-number shocks
- Nonlinear dynamics of the ion Weibel-filamentation instability: an analytical model for the evolution of the plasma and spectral properties
- Magnetic field amplification by a nonlinear electron streaming instability
- Long-term Evolution of Relativistic Unmagnetized Collisionless Shocks
- Origin of intense electron heating in relativistic blast waves
- Magnetic field amplification by a plasma cavitation instability in relativistic shock precursors
- Loading a relativistic kappa distribution in particle simulations
- Enhanced Magnetic Field Amplification by Ion-Beam Weibel Instability in Weakly Magnetized Astrophysical Shocks
- Efficient generation of turbulent collisionless shocks in laser-ablated counter-streaming plasmas
- Evolution of three-dimensional Relativistic Ion Weibel Instability: Competition with Kink Instability