Particle Energization in an Expanding Magnetized Relativistic Plasma

Abstract

Using a 2-1/2-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) code to simulate the relativistic expansion of a magnetized collisionless plasma into a vacuum, we report a new mechanism in which the magnetic energy is efficiently converted into the directed kinetic energy of a small fraction of surface particles. We study this mechanism for both electron-positron and electron-ion (mi/me=100, me is the electron rest mass) plasmas. For the electron-positron case the pairs can be accelerated to ultra-relativistic energies. For electron-ion plasmas most of the energy gain goes to the ions.

7 pages text plus 5 figures, accepted for publication by Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (1)

• Gamma-ray Bursts - A Puzzle Being Resolved

Cited by in corpus (7)

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• Comoving acceleration of overdense electron-positron plasma by colliding ultra-intense laser pulses
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• Simulating Poynting Flux Acceleration in the Laboratory with Colliding Laser Pulses