Browsing by Subject "acceleration of particles"
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Item A Flux Rope Network And Particle Acceleration In Three-Dimensional Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection(2013-09) Kagan, Daniel; Milosavljevic, Milos; Spitkovsky, Anatoly; Kagan, Daniel; Milosavljevic, MilosWe investigate magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration in relativistic pair plasmas with three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of a kinetic-scale current sheet in a periodic geometry. We include a guide field that introduces an inclination between the reconnecting field lines and explore outside-of-the-current sheet magnetizations that are significantly below those considered by other authors carrying out similar calculations. Thus, our simulations probe the transitional regime in which the magnetic and plasma pressures are of the same order of magnitude. The tearing instability is the dominant mode in the current sheet for all guide field strengths, while the linear kink mode is less important even without the guide field, except in the lower magnetization case. Oblique modes seem to be suppressed entirely. In its nonlinear evolution, the reconnection layer develops a network of interconnected and interacting magnetic flux ropes. As smaller flux ropes merge into larger ones, the reconnection layer evolves toward a three-dimensional, disordered Statein which the resulting flux rope segments contain magnetic substructure on plasma skin depth scales. Embedded in the flux ropes, we detect spatially and temporally intermittent sites of dissipation reflected in peaks in the parallel electric field. Magnetic dissipation and particle acceleration persist until the end of the simulations, with simulations with higher magnetization and lower guide field strength exhibiting greater and faster energy conversion and particle energization. At the end of our largest simulation, the particle energy spectrum attains a tail extending to high Lorentz factors that is best modeled with a combination of two additional thermal components. We confirm that the primary energization mechanism is acceleration by the electric field in the X-line region. The highest-energy positrons (electrons) are moderately beamed with median angles similar to 30 degrees-40 degrees relative to (the opposite of) the direction of the initial current density, but we speculate that reconnection in more highly magnetized plasmas would give rise to stronger beaming. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for macroscopic reconnection sites, and which of our results may be expected to hold in systems with higher magnetizations.Item Two-Stream-Like Instability In Dilute Hot Relativistic Beams And Astrophysical Relativistic Shocks(2011-09) Nakar, Ehud; Bret, Antoine; Milosavljevic, Milos; Milosavljevic, MilosRelativistic collisionless shocks are believed to be efficient particle accelerators. Nonlinear outcome of the interaction of accelerated particles that run ahead of the shock, the so-called precursor, with the unperturbed plasma of the shock upstream, is thought to facilitate additional acceleration of these particles and to possibly modify the hydrodynamic structure of the shock. We explore here the linear growth of kinetic modes appearing in the precursor-upstream interaction in relativistic shocks propagating in non- and weakly magnetized plasmas: electrostatic two-stream parallel mode and electrostatic oblique modes. The physics of the parallel and oblique modes is similar, and thus, we refer to the entire spectrum of electrostatic modes as "two-stream-like." These modes are of particular interest because they are the fastest growing modes known in this type of system. Using a simplified distribution function for a dilute ultrarelativistic beam that is relativistically hot in its own rest frame, yet has momenta that are narrowly collimated in the frame of the cold upstream plasma into which it propagates, we identify the fastest growing mode in the full k-space and calculate its growth rate. We consider all types of plasma (pairs and ions-electrons) and beam (charged and charge-neutral). We find that unstable electrostatic modes are present in any type of plasma and for any shock parameters. We further find that two modes, one parallel (k(perpendicular to) = 0) and the other one oblique (k(perpendicular to) similar to k(parallel to)), are competing for dominance and that either one may dominate the growth rate in different regions of the phase space. The dominant mode is determined mostly by the perpendicular spread of the accelerated particle momenta in the upstream frame, which reflects the shock Lorentz factor. The parallel mode becomes more dominant in shocks with lower Lorentz factors (i.e., with larger momentum spreads). We briefly discuss possible implications of our results for external shocks in gamma-ray burst sources.