Acceleration time scale for the first-order Fermi acceleration in relativistic shock waves

Abstract

The acceleration time scale for the process of first-order Fermi acceleration in relativistic shock waves with oblique magnetic field configurations is investigated by the method of Monte Carlo particle simulations. We demonstrate the presence of correlation between the particle energy gain at interaction with the shock and the respective time elapsed since the previous interaction. Because of that any derivation of the acceleration time scale can not use the distribution of energy gains and the distribution of times separately. The time scale discussed in the present paper, $T_{acc}^{(c)}$, is the one describing the rate of change of the particle spectrum cut-off energy in the time dependent evolution. It is derived using a simplified method involving small amplitude particle momentum scattering and intended to model the situations with anisotropic cosmic ray distributions. We consider shocks with parallel, as well as oblique, sub- and super-luminal magnetic field configurations with finite amplitude perturbations, $δB$. We got some interesting results like non-monotonic changes of $T_{acc}^{(c)}$ with $δB$, which arises due to the particle cross-field diffusion.