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Lorenzo Sironi

Publications and source records attributed to Lorenzo Sironi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Energy Partition in Relativistic Electron-Positron-Ion Reconnection

Relativistic magnetic reconnection, a prime mechanism for particle acceleration, has been extensively studied in electron--ion and pair plasmas, but how the dissipated energy is shared among species in electron--positron--ion plasmas, and in particular how ions are energized within a pair-dominated layer, remains poorly understood. We develop an analytic theory that couples single-particle orbit dynamics to the collective plasma response, and we validate it with particle-in-cell simulations spanning pair-dominated to electron--ion compositions. Particles are directly energized in electric-dominated regions until the reconnected magnetic field deflects them into the outflow; the characteristic escape length is in turn set by the relativistic skin depth of the reconnection-heated mixture, including the ion contribution. Writing $σ_e^*$ for the magnetic energy available per particle in units of $m_ec^2$ and $μ=m_i/m_e$, the mean lepton energy scales as $σ_e^*$, whereas the mean ion energy scales as $μ^{1/3}(σ_e^*)^{2/3}$ when ions escape non-relativistically from the electric-dominated regions and approaches the lepton energy when their escape is ultrarelativistic. The predicted energy fractions agree with simulations across composition, mass ratio, and magnetization. The ion share of the dissipated energy can fall far below the commonly assumed ion--lepton equipartition, reducing the energy available for hadronic and neutrino emission in reconnection-powered astrophysical sources.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

1D PIC Simulations of Resonant Scattering-Driven Pair Cascades in Magnetar Magnetospheres

Hard X-rays in persistent magnetar emission originate from radiative processes in pair-loaded magnetospheric plasma, yet self-consistent kinetic simulations of such radiation-rich systems remain limited. We perform 1D particle-in-cell simulations of pair creation mediated by resonant inverse Compton scattering (RICS) along isolated field lines in twisted magnetospheres, capturing particle acceleration and radiative drag from first principles. The drag force, which strongly depends on the particle Lorentz factor and location, plays a key role in the magnetospheric circuit. Strong RICS drag impedes the flow of electrons and positrons, particularly along extended field lines. Nevertheless, the plasma sustains the circuit by self-organizing into a single accelerating gap near the star in one hemisphere. The accelerated plasma flow from the gap becomes loaded with copious electron-positron pairs in extended RICS zones, and also carries ions extracted from the star and accelerated in the gap. When radiative drag stops the pair-loaded flow at the magnetic equator, the ion component transfers momentum through streaming instabilities, delivering a small lepton population into the opposite hemisphere and sustaining the circuit. The gap confined to a single (anode) hemisphere implies asymmetric hard X-ray production, possibly detectable in phase-resolved magnetar spectra.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

The baryon content of magnetically arrested black hole disks and jets

We study the transport of baryons in magnetically arrested accretion flows and relativistic jets using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations that incorporate a passive Eulerian tracer. The tracer allows us to reconstruct a proxy for the physical baryon density supplied by the accretion disk while excluding the mass injected numerically to maintain stability in highly magnetized, low-density regions. Applying this method to axisymmetric black hole simulations with varying spin, we show that baryon loading of the jet is intrinsically episodic and regulated by magnetic flux eruption cycles occurring in the inner accretion flow. Each eruption evacuates baryons from the innermost equatorial region, drives reconnection in extended current sheets, and expels moderately magnetized disk material along the funnel wall, establishing a recurrent mass-loading channel. In spinning black holes, shear-driven waves along the jet boundary further enhance baryon entrainment, whereas this mechanism is suppressed in the non-spinning case. For parameters representative of the black hole accretion flow in M87, we map the global structure and time evolution of the Goldreich-Julian screening boundary, defined as the surface separating regions where the plasma density is sufficient to supply the charges required to screen electric fields parallel to the magnetic field from regions that are charge starved. For spinning black holes, we find that the electromagnetic power of the jet is predominantly carried by baryon-poor plasma, with extended time intervals of charge starvation. Our results provide a framework for diagnosing jet composition, charge starvation, and reconnection-driven mass loading in magnetically arrested black hole systems, with direct implications for particle acceleration and non-thermal emission in low-luminosity accretion flows.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Synchrotron-Regulated Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence: Emission, Polarization, and Faraday Rotation

Relativistic magnetized plasmas in many high-energy astrophysical systems are both turbulent and strongly radiative, yet their nonlinear dynamics and radiative outcomes remain poorly understood. Here we present results from three-dimensional driven turbulence simulations in relativistic magnetohydrodynamics with synchrotron cooling. We compute Faraday rotation measures, synthetic synchrotron spectra and linear polarization maps from the simulated turbulence. The balance between energy injection from turbulent driving and synchrotron cooling keeps the plasma, on average, relativistically hot, thereby influencing the rotation measure. Synchrotron cooling triggers the thermal instability and drives the plasma into hot dilute and cold dense phases, which enhances the spatial and temporal variability of synchrotron emission, especially at high frequencies. These diagnostics show qualitative similarities to observations of fast radio bursts, pulsar wind nebulae, and blazars, suggesting that turbulence may play an important role in shaping emission and propagation effects around high-energy sources.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Compression-Driven Kinetic Instabilities in Magnetically Arrested Disks

Event horizon-scale observations of low-luminosity black hole accretion flows favor magnetically arrested disks, characterized by dynamically important magnetic fields ($β\lesssim1$, where $β$ is the ratio of plasma thermal pressure to magnetic pressure) and a two-temperature transrelativistic plasma. Motivated by plasma conditions in the synchrotron-emitting regions of these models, we perform 2D particle-in-cell simulations of electron-ion plasmas with a realistic mass ratio, subject to continuous compression perpendicular to the mean magnetic field $\boldsymbol{B}_0$. Conservation of particle magnetic moments drives pressure anisotropy $P_{\perp}>P_{\parallel}$, triggering anisotropy-driven instabilities. For ion plasma beta $β_{i0}=0.5$ and ion temperature $k_{\text{B}}T_{i0}/m_i c^2=0.05$, the ion pressure anisotropy is regulated by the ion cyclotron instability, while the mirror mode influences the late-time electron anisotropy. Both species develop nonthermal components at high energies, consistent with stochastic acceleration by cyclotron-scale fluctuations. We characterize how the onset and time evolution of the plasma instabilities, as well as the resulting ion and electron anisotropies and energy spectra, vary with $β_{i0}$, $k_{\text{B}}T_{i0}/m_i c^2$, electron-to-ion temperature ratio $T_{e0}/T_{i0}$, and the compression rate. Increasing the thermal energy toward relativistic values raises the anisotropy thresholds for all instabilities observed in our simulations, allowing larger anisotropies to develop. For $T_{e0}/T_{i0}<1$, as expected in collisionless two-temperature accretion flows, the growth of mirror and whistler instabilities is delayed or suppressed, leading to increasingly adiabatic evolution of the electrons. Our findings can be used to inform global fluid models of black hole accretion.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Self-confinement of relativistic pair beams in magnetized interstellar plasmas: the case of pulsar X-ray filaments

The observation of filamentary X-ray structures near bow-shock pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) -- such as the Guitar, Lighthouse, and PSR J2030$+$4415 nebulae -- and of slow-diffusion regions around pulsars like Geminga, Monogem, and PSR J0622$+$3749, challenges the standard picture of cosmic-ray transport in the interstellar medium, implying a diffusion coefficient two orders of magnitude smaller than the Galactic average. The suppressed diffusion can be attributed to self-generated magnetic turbulence, driven -- via the non-resonant streaming instability -- by electron-positron pairs escaping the PWNe. This instability requires a net current, yet the beam of escaping pairs is expected to be charge-neutral. We show that a charge-neutral pair beam propagating through an electron-proton plasma can spontaneously generate a net current. Using fully kinetic two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations with realistic mass ratio, we find that beam electrons get focused into self-generated magnetic filaments produced by the nonlinear evolution of the Weibel instability, while beam positrons remain unconfined. We show that in three-dimensional simulations the resulting net (positron) current drives the non-resonant streaming instability, further amplifying the magnetic field. This mechanism provides a pathway for the onset of charge asymmetries in initially charge-neutral pair beams and for the growth of magnetic fluctuations that efficiently scatter the beam particles, with implications for the formation of X-ray filaments and, potentially, for particle self-confinement in TeV halos around PWNe.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Dependence of Particle Acceleration Efficiency on Shock Velocity in Weakly Magnetized Electron-Ion Shocks

Using unprecedentedly long 2D particle-in-cell simulations, we study electron and ion acceleration in weakly magnetized quasi-parallel shocks, propagating at velocities ranging from transrelativistic to subrelativistic. At a fixed upstream magnetic field strength, low-velocity quasi-parallel shocks are dominated by the Bell instability, whereas high-velocity shocks are dominated by the Weibel instability. Both regimes accelerate ions with similar efficiency, with the Bell-dominated regime exhibiting faster growth in the maximum particle energy. The electron acceleration efficiency is strongly dependent on shock velocity. Weibel-dominated shocks have $\sim15\,\%$ of shock energy in nonthermal electrons, whereas in the Bell-dominated regime we attribute less than $\sim2\,\%$ of shock energy to nonthermal electrons. We discuss applications of our results to the bright X-ray emission from the late-stage afterglows of gamma-ray bursts, the radio emission from fast blue optical transients, and the X-ray variability in microquasars.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Interaction of Strong Electromagnetic Waves with Unmagnetized Pair Plasmas

We investigate analytically and numerically the interaction of strong electromagnetic waves with unmagnetized pair plasmas. We show that the interaction is governed by a single nonlinearity parameter, $\varepsilon_{\rm p}$, defined as the ratio of the wave strength parameter to the wave frequency in units of the plasma frequency (with both frequencies measured in the plasma rest frame prior to the interaction). When $\varepsilon_{\rm p}<1$, the number of wavelengths that propagate through the plasma without attenuation from induced Compton scattering is approximately $\varepsilon_{\rm p}^{-2/3}$. This attenuation can imprint sub-structures as narrow as a few wavelengths on the pulse profile. When $\varepsilon_{\rm p}>1$, the electromagnetic pulse acts as a relativistic piston and drives a shock into the plasma. Our results establish a framework for the interaction of strong electromagnetic waves with pair plasmas, a process relevant for intense radio pulses from neutron stars and for next-generation pair plasma experiments at multi-petawatt laser facilities.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2026

Reconnection-Driven Turbulent Fluctuations in the Magnetically Dominated Collisionless Regime

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma process that converts magnetic energy into bulk flow energy, thermal energy, and nonthermal particle acceleration. Despite its importance, the statistical properties of the turbulent fluctuations generated by collisionless reconnection, which are essential for understanding how this energy conversion proceeds, remain poorly understood. Here, we employ large-scale 3D particle-in-cell simulations to investigate the turbulence characteristics of velocity and magnetic field fluctuations generated by collisionless reconnection in a magnetically dominated pair plasma. We characterize their statistical properties by computing structure functions along different directions within the reconnection layer. We find that the square root of the second-order velocity structure function follows a power-law scaling with a slope $\sim1/3$ at intermediate to large scales. The square root of the second-order magnetic structure function consistently exhibits a steeper slope, in the range $\sim 0.6 - 0.8$. The presence of a finite guide field does not systematically modify the slope of the velocity fluctuations, while it progressively steepens the scaling of the magnetic fluctuations in the guide-field and inflow directions. We measure higher-order structure functions, which reveal strong magnetic intermittency along the outflow direction and weaker intermittency in the inflow and guide-field directions. Additionally, the local anisotropies of both velocity and magnetic field fluctuations are greater for stronger guide fields. These results provide a systematic characterization of the multiscale nature of turbulence in collisionless and magnetically dominated reconnection layers, with important implications for plasma heating and particle acceleration.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2026

Maximum Energy of Particles Accelerated in Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow Shocks

Particle acceleration in relativistic collisionless shocks remains an open problem in high-energy astrophysics. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations predict that electron acceleration in weakly magnetized shocks proceeds via small-angle scattering, leading to a maximum electron energy significantly below the Bohm limit. This upper bound on electron energy manifests observationally as a characteristic synchrotron cutoff, providing a direct probe of the underlying acceleration physics. Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows offer an exceptional laboratory for testing these predictions. Here, we model the spectral evolution of GRB afterglows during the relativistic deceleration phase, incorporating PIC-motivated acceleration prescriptions and self-consistently computing synchrotron and synchrotron self-Compton emission. We find that low-energy bursts in low-density environments, typical of short GRBs, exhibit a pronounced synchrotron cutoff in the GeV band within minutes to hours after the trigger. Applying our framework to GRB 190114C and GRB 130427A, we find that current observations are insufficient to discriminate between PIC-motivated acceleration and the Bohm limit, primarily due to poor photon statistics in the Fermi-LAT band. Nevertheless, future MeV-TeV afterglow observations can break model degeneracies and place substantially tighter constraints on the mechanisms responsible for particle acceleration in relativistic shocks. To this end, we simulate a fiducial nearby short GRB as a promising probe of the cutoff location, for which the two acceleration scenarios are cleanly distinguishable and the detection of such an event in the near future remains feasible.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

The role of three-dimensional effects on ion injection and acceleration in perpendicular shocks

Understanding the conditions that enable particle acceleration at non-relativistic collisionless shocks is essential to unveil the origin of cosmic rays. We employ 2D and 3D hybrid simulations (with kinetic ions and fluid electrons) to explore particle acceleration and magnetic field amplification in non-relativistic perpendicular shocks, focusing on the role of shock drift acceleration and its dependence on the shock Mach number. We perform an analysis of the ion injection process and demonstrate why efficient acceleration is only observed in 3D. In particular, we show that ion injection critically depends on the "porosity" of the magnetic turbulence in the downstream region near the shock, a property describing how easily the post-shock region allows particles to traverse it and return upstream without being trapped. This effect can only be properly captured in 3D. Additionally, we explore the impact of numerical resolution on ion energization, highlighting how resolving small-scale turbulence -- on scales below the thermal ion gyroradius -- is essential for accurately modeling particle injection. Overall, our results emphasize the necessity of high-resolution 3D simulations to capture the fundamental microphysics driving particle acceleration at perpendicular shocks.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

3D Kinetic Simulations of Driven Reconnection in Merging Flux Tubes

We present 2D and 3D Particle-in-Cell simulations of driven collisionless magnetic reconnection triggered by the compression and merger of two Lundquist-type force-free flux tubes in a strongly magnetized pair plasma, with a focus on magnetic energy dissipation and particle acceleration. We show that 3D effects systematically delay the onset of reconnection in comparison with equivalent 2D runs, an effect further enhanced by a strong guide field, due to reduced linear growth rates and phase decoherence of oblique modes. Increasing the external drive accelerates both tearing and drift-kink instabilities, while a strong guide field suppresses coherent drift-kink activity and has a comparatively mild impact on tearing. Despite these differences in early-time dynamics, all simulations enter a fast-merging phase characterized by a normalized reconnection rate 0.08--0.10, coinciding with a transient reduction of the guide-to-reconnecting field ratio inside the current sheet. The high-energy cutoff of accelerated particles converges to a common asymptotic value, gamma_cut/sigma_in ~ 50, with only a weak dependence on the driving strength. This behavior is consistent with an electric-field-limited acceleration process, in which the maximum energy is set by the reconnection electric field and the duration of the energization phase. The resulting nonthermal particle spectra are similar across all runs, with power-law indices p ~ 1.6--2.0.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2026

Neutrinos and gamma rays from Seyfert galaxies constrain the properties of coronal turbulence

The TeV neutrino signal observed by IceCube from the active galactic nucleus (AGN) NGC 1068 can probe its innermost coronal regions. If these neutrinos originate from hadrons accelerated within a magnetized turbulent corona, their intensity and spectrum depend on the turbulent magnetic field strength and turbulence coherence scale. The gamma rays accompanying neutrino production are absorbed in this optically thick environment, in a way that depends sensitively on the size of the corona. By a joint fit of the IceCube and Fermi-LAT observations, we translate the multimessenger signal from NGC 1068 and the tentative signal from NGC 7469 into quantitative constraints on coronal properties. NGC 1068, with a significant TeV neutrino excess, favors a compact, strongly magnetized corona with a large turbulence coherence length relative to the coronal size. NGC 7469, with two $\sim 100$ TeV neutrino events, points instead to a somewhat larger corona with much smaller coherence length and high magnetization, but a very small fraction of energy in non-thermal protons. We obtain the diffuse flux from a population of Seyfert galaxies identical to either NGC 1068 or NGC 7469. Finally, we consider a third scenario, motivated by the spectral break observed in the diffuse neutrino flux at tens of TeV, with coronal properties intermediate between the two point-source-inspired models. To enable detailed comparisons with the IceCube and electromagnetic observations, we release our model predictions in a GitHub repository.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

The role of Bethe-Heitler pair production in reconnection-driven flares in M87*

Rapid TeV flares have been observed from the core of the active galaxy M87. These have been attributed to inverse Compton scattering of disk photons by electrons and positrons accelerated in transient reconnection layers formed in baryon-poor regions of the magnetosphere of the central black hole, M87*. It was previously shown that even a small number of protons accelerated in the same layers can lead to bright GeV proton-synchrotron flares, if protons receive $\gtrsim20\%$ of the dissipated power for reconnecting fields of $\sim$100 G. We aim to investigate the role of Bethe-Heitler pair production in the emission of reconnection-driven flares from M87* in this physical regime. We perform numerical calculations that incorporate inelastic collisions between relativistic protons and photons, as well as photon-photon pair production, and compute the non-thermal radiation from the layer. The numerical calculations are also supported by analytical estimates. We find that disk photons act as targets for Bethe-Heitler pair production. The resulting pairs emit very high-energy synchrotron photons ($\gtrsim$0.1 TeV), which are subsequently attenuated by the disk photon field, leading to further pair production. The synchrotron emission of these secondary pairs produces soft photons, as part of an electromagnetic cascade, enhancing pion production and photon-photon attenuation down to tens-of-GeV energies.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Superluminal Wave Activation at Relativistic Magnetized Shocks

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extremely energetic radio transients, some are generated in magnetar magnetospheres and winds. Despite a growing number of observations, their emission mechanisms remain elusive. It has recently been proposed that Alfvénic perturbations can convert into superluminal O-modes at magnetized shocks and propagate downstream as a radio signal. We validate this superluminal wave activation mechanism using pair-plasma theory and particle-in-cell simulations. Theory predicts two different downstream modes: nonpropagating Alfvénic perturbations and propagating superluminal O-modes. Superluminal wave activation occurs if the frequency of upstream perturbations in the shock frame exceeds the downstream plasma frequency. 1D particle-in-cell simulations confirm wavenumber and frequency jumps across the shock for upstream perturbations with frequencies well above the plasma frequency. Our simulations model both monochromatic upstream waves and broadband spectra with the downstream plasma frequency acting like a high-pass filter for superluminal O-modes. We discuss implications for FRB generation in relativistic magnetized winds.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

Magnetic Field Amplification and Particle Acceleration in Weakly Magnetized Trans-relativistic Electron-ion Shocks

We investigate the physics of quasi-parallel trans-relativistic shocks propagating in weakly magnetized plasmas by means of long-duration two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The structure of the shock precursor is shaped by a competition between the Bell instability and the Weibel (filamentation) instability. The Bell instability is dominant at relatively high magnetizations $(σ\gtrsim10^{-3})$, whereas the Weibel instability prevails at lower magnetizations $(σ\lesssim10^{-4})$. Shocks with precursors shaped by Bell modes efficiently accelerate ions, converting a fraction $\varepsilon_{\mathrm{i}}\sim0.2$ of the upstream flow energy into downstream nonthermal ion energy. The maximum energy of nonthermal ions exhibits a Bohm scaling in time, as $E_{\max}\propto t$. A much smaller fraction $\varepsilon_{\mathrm{e}}\ll0.1$ of the upstream flow energy goes into downstream nonthermal electrons in the Bell regime. On the other hand, when the precursor is dominated by Weibel modes, the shock efficiently generates both nonthermal ions and electrons with $\varepsilon_{\mathrm{i}}\sim\varepsilon_{\mathrm{e}}\sim0.1$, albeit with a slower scaling for the maximum energy, $E_{\mathrm{max}}\propto t^{1/2}$. Our results are applicable to a wide range of trans-relativistic shocks, including the termination shocks of extragalactic jets, the late stages of gamma-ray burst afterglows, and shocks in fast blue optical transients.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2026

The effect of inverse Compton losses on particle acceleration in three-dimensional relativistic reconnection

Relativistic magnetic reconnection is a key mechanism for dissipating magnetic energy and accelerating particles in astrophysics. In the absence of radiative cooling, recent particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations have shown that high-energy particles gain most of their energy in the upstream region, during a short-lived "free phase" where they meander between the two sides of the layer; when they get captured/trapped by the downstream flux ropes, they undergo a "trapped phase", where no significant energization occurs. Here, we perform a suite of 3D PIC simulations of relativistic reconnection including inverse Compton (IC) losses in the weakly cooled regime in which the radiation-reaction-limited Lorentz factor $γ_{\rm rad}$ exceeds the magnetization $σ$. We show that electron cooling losses do not appreciably alter the reconnection rate, the structure of the layer, and the physics of particle acceleration in the free phase, so the spectrum of free electrons is $dN_{\rm free}/dγ\propto γ^{-1}$, as in the uncooled case. The spectrum of trapped electrons above the cooling break $γ_{\rm cool}$ (in the range $γ_{\rm cool}<γ<γ_{\rm rad}$) is $dN/dγ\propto γ^{-3}$, steeper than the scaling $dN/dγ\propto γ^{-2}$ of uncooled simulations. This confirms that no significant particle energization occurs during the trapped phase. Our results validate the model by arXiv:2302.12269 for particle acceleration in 3D relativistic reconnection, and imply that radiative emission models of reconnection-powered astrophysical sources should employ a two-zone structure, that differentiates between free, rapidly accelerating particles and trapped, passively cooling particles.

astro-ph.HE↗
arXiv2025

Reconnection-driven Flares in M87*: Proton-Synchrotron-powered GeV Emission

Magnetic reconnection in current layers that form intermittently in radiatively inefficient accretion flows onto black holes is a promising mechanism for particle acceleration and high-energy emission. It has been recently proposed that such layers, arising during flux eruption events, can power the rapid TeV flares observed from the core of M87. In this scenario, inverse Compton scattering of soft radiation from the accretion flow by energetic electron-positron pairs produced near the reconnection layer was suggested as the primary emission mechanism. However, detailed calculations show that radiation from pairs alone cannot account for the GeV emission detected by the Fermi observatory. In this work, we combine analytic estimates with 3D radiative particle-in-cell simulations of pair-proton plasmas to show that the GeV emission can be naturally explained by synchrotron radiation from protons accelerated in the current sheet. Although the exact proton content of the layer is uncertain, our model remains robust across a broad range of proton-to-pair number density ratios. While protons are subdominant in number compared to pairs, our simulations demonstrate that they can be accelerated more efficiently, leading to a self-regulated steady state in which protons dominate the energy budget. Ultimately, proton synchrotron emission accounts for approximately 5%-20% of the total dissipation power. The majority is radiated as MeV photons via pair synchrotron emission, with a smaller fraction emitted as TeV photons through inverse Compton scattering.

astro-ph.HE↗