Very High Mach Number Electrostatic Shocks in Collisionless Plasmas

Abstract

The kinetic theory of collisionless electrostatic shocks resulting from the collision of plasma slabs with different temperatures and densities is presented. The theoretical results are confirmed by self-consistent particle-in-cell simulations, revealing the formation and stable propagation of electrostatic shocks with very high Mach numbers ($M\gg 10$), well above the predictions of the classical theories for electrostatic shocks.

6 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett

References in corpus (3)

• The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Cosmological Shock Waves and Their Role in the Large Scale Structure of the Universe
• Properties of Cosmic Shock Waves in Large Scale Structure Formation

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