arXiv · astro-ph/0307500
Interpenetrating plasma shells: near-equipartition magnetic field generation and non-thermal particle acceleration
Abstract
We present the first three-dimensional fully kinetic electromagnetic relativistic particle-in-cell simulations of the collision of two interpenetrating plasma shells. The highly accurate plasma-kinetic "particle-in-cell" (with the total of $10^8$ particles) parallel code OSIRIS has been used. Our simulations show: (i) the generation of long-lived near-equipartition (electro)magnetic fields, (ii) non-thermal particle acceleration, and (iii) short-scale to long-scale magnetic field evolution, in the collision region. Our results provide new insights into the magnetic field generation and particle acceleration in relativistic and sub-relativistic colliding streams of particles, which are present in gamma-ray bursters, supernova remnants, relativistic jets, pulsar winds, etc..
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L. O. Silva, R. A. Fonseca, J. Tonge, J. M. Dawson, W. B. Mori, M. V. Medvedev. 2003-07-29. Interpenetrating plasma shells: near-equipartition magnetic field generation and non-thermal particle acceleration. https://doi.org/10.1086/379156
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