Particle Acceleration at Shocks: An Introduction

Damiano Caprioli

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arXiv · 2307.00284

Particle Acceleration at Shocks: An Introduction

Damiano Caprioli

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Abstract

These notes present the fundamentals of Fermi acceleration at shocks, with a special attention to the role that supernova remnants have in producing Galactic cosmic rays. Then, the recent discoveries in the theory of diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) that stem from first-principle kinetic plasma simulations are discussed. When ion acceleration is efficient, the back-reaction of non-thermal particles and self-generated magnetic fields becomes prominent and leads to both enhanced shock compression and particle spectra significantly softer than those predicted by the standard test-particle DSA theory. These results are discussed in the context of the non-thermal phenomenology of astrophysical shocks, with a special focus on the remnant of SN1006.

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Damiano Caprioli. 2023-07-01. Particle Acceleration at Shocks: An Introduction. https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.00284

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