Magnetohydrodynamic Jump Conditions for Oblique Relativistic Shocks with Gyrotropic Pressure

Abstract

Shock jump conditions are obtained for steady-state, plane shocks with oblique magnetic fields and arbitrary flow speeds. For ultrarelativistic and nonrelativistic shocks, the jump conditions may be solved analytically. For mildly relativistic shocks, analytic solutions are obtained for isotropic pressure using an approximation for the adiabatic index that is valid in high sonic Mach number cases. In the more general case of gyrotropic pressure, the jump conditions cannot be solved analytically without additional assumptions, and the effects of gyrotropic pressure are investigated by parameterizing the distribution of pressure parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field. Our numerical solutions reveal that relatively small departures from isotropy (e.g., about 20%) produce significant changes in the shock compression ratio, r, at all shock Lorentz factors, including ultrarelativistic ones, where an analytic solution with gyrotropic pressure is obtained. In particular, either dynamically important fields or significant pressure anisotropies can incur marked departures from the canonical gas dynamic value of r=3 for a shocked ultrarelativistic flow and this may impact models of particle acceleration in gamma-ray bursts and other environments where relativistic shocks are inferred. The jump conditions presented apply directly to test-particle acceleration, and will facilitate future self-consistent numerical modeling of particle acceleration at oblique, relativistic shocks.