Magnetic Field Generation in Collisionless Shocks: Pattern Growth and Transport

By J. Frederiksen, C. Hededal, T. Haugbølle, Åke Nordlund. 2003

207 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present results from three-dimensional particle simulations of collisionless shock formation, with relativistic counterstreaming ion-electron plasmas. Particles are followed over many skin depths downstream of the shock. Open boundaries allow the experiments to be continued for several particle crossing times. The experiments confirm the generation of strong magnetic and electric fields by a Weibel-like kinetic streaming instability and demonstrate that the electromagnetic fields propagate far downstream of the shock. The magnetic fields are predominantly transversal and are associated with merging ion current channels. The total magnetic energy grows as the ion channels merge and as the magnetic field patterns propagate downstream. The electron populations are quickly thermalized, while the ion populations retain distinct bulk speeds in shielded ion channels and thermalize much more slowly. The results help reveal processes of importance in collisionless shocks and may help to explain the origin of the magnetic fields responsible for afterglow synchrotron/jitter radiation from gamma-ray bursts.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ac34dd4887b677ddae05ec449796f3b59a15daf8

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. J. Arons
2. A. Spitkovsky
3. A. Pe’er
4. A. Bret
5. L. Sironi
6. H. Takabe
7. T. Kato
8. F. Ryde

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. A. Spitkovsky
2. J. Arons
3. A. Bret
4. L. Sironi
5. H. Takabe
6. P. Chang
7. T. Kato
8. F. Ryde

Citations in the corpus

• Nonrelativistic Collisionless Shocks in Unmagnetized Electron-Ion Plasmas (2008, methodology): “These filaments consist of ions that are surrounded by the diffuse electrons similar to the case of the relativistic counterstreaming plasmas (Frederiksen et al. 2004).”
• WEIBEL, TWO-STREAM, FILAMENTATION, OBLIQUE, BELL, BUNEMAN...WHICH ONE GROWS FASTER? (2009, background): “…their interaction with the interstellar medium provides the magnetic turbulence eventually responsible for synchrotron radiation emissions (Medvedev & Loeb 1999; Silva et al. 2003; Nishikawa et al. 2006; Frederiksen et al. 2004; Milosavljevic & Nakar 2006; Lemoine et al. 2006; Niemiec et al. 2008).”
• Long-Term Evolution of Magnetic Turbulence in Relativistic Collisionless Shocks: Electron-Positron Plasmas (2007, background): “However, present simulations (Kazimura et al. 1998; Silva et al. 2003; Frederiksen et al. 2004; Hededal et al. 2005; Nishikawa et al. 2003, 2005) have not followed the flow through the shock transition layer into the downstream region because they employ periodic boundary conditions, are too small,…”
• Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Collisionless Shocks: Fermi Process at Last? (2008, background): “…have confirmed the general picture of the initial stages of the instability (Kazimura et al. 1998; Nishikawa et al. 2003, 2005; Silva et al. 2003; Frederiksen et al. 2004; Hededal et al. 2004), and have been evolved through the shock formation stage in both 2D (Gruzinov 2001; Kato 2007;…”
• On the Structure of Relativistic Collisionless Shocks in Electron-Ion Plasmas (2007, methodology): “Weibel instability was simulated by a number of authors in various contexts (e.g., Nishikawa et al. 2003; Silva et al. 2003; Frederiksen et al. 2004; Medvedev et al. 2005; Nishikawa et al. 2005).”
• QUASI-BLACKBODY COMPONENT AND RADIATIVE EFFICIENCY OF THE PROMPT EMISSION OF GAMMA-RAY BURSTS (2008, background): “…broadband shape: the energy dissipation above the photosphere can lead to accelerated particles (emitting synchrotron and/or IC emission) through Fermi (stochastic) acceleration, or streaming instabilities (Frederiksen et al. 2004) and/or converter acceleration (Derishev et al. 2008) in the flow.”