1,827 research outputs found
Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Jets due to Weibel Instability
Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas.
Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., the Buneman instability,
two-streaming instability, and the Weibel instability) created in the shocks
are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using
a 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated
particle acceleration associated with a relativistic jet front propagating
through an ambient plasma with and without initial magnetic fields. We find
only small differences in the results between no ambient and weak ambient
magnetic fields. Simulations show that the Weibel instability created in the
collisionless shock front accelerates particles perpendicular and parallel to
the jet propagation direction. While some Fermi acceleration may occur at the
jet front, the majority of electron acceleration takes place behind the jet
front and cannot be characterized as Fermi acceleration. The simulation results
show that this instability is responsible for generating and amplifying highly
nonuniform, small-scale magnetic fields, which contribute to the electron's
transverse deflection behind the jet head. The ``jitter'' radiation (Medvedev
2000) from deflected electrons has different properties than synchrotron
radiation which is calculated in a uniform magnetic field. This jitter
radiation may be important to understanding the complex time evolution and/or
spectral structure in gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets, and supernova
remnants.Comment: ApJ, in press, Sept. 20, 2003 (figures with better resolution:
http://gammaray.nsstc.nasa.gov/~nishikawa/apjweib.pdf
Particle Acceleration and Magnetic Field Generation in Electron-Positron Relativistic Shocks
Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas.
Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel and
other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks are responsible
for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3-D
relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated
particle acceleration associated with a relativistic electron-positron jet
front propagating into an ambient electron-positron plasma with and without
initial magnetic fields. We find small differences in the results for no
ambient and modest ambient magnetic fields. New simulations show that the
Weibel instability created in the collisionless shock front accelerates jet and
ambient particles both perpendicular and parallel to the jet propagation
direction. Furthermore, the non-linear fluctuation amplitudes of densities,
currents, electric, and magnetic fields in the electron-positron shock are
larger than those found in the electron-ion shock studied in a previous paper
at the comparable simulation time. This comes from the fact that both electrons
and positrons contribute to generation of the Weibel instability. Additionally,
we have performed simulations with different electron skin depths. We find that
growth times scale inversely with the plasma frequency, and the sizes of
structures created by the Weibel instability scale proportional to the electron
skin depth. This is the expected result and indicates that the simulations have
sufficient grid resolution. The simulation results show that the Weibel
instability is responsible for generating and amplifying nonuniform,
small-scale magnetic fields which contribute to the electron's (positron's)
transverse deflection behind the jet head.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, revised and accepted for ApJ, A full resolution
of the paper can be found at
http://gammaray.nsstc.nasa.gov/~nishikawa/apjep1.pd
Particle Acceleration and Radiation associated with Magnetic Field Generation from Relativistic Collisionless Shocks
Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas.
Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., the Buneman instability,
two-streaming instability, and the Weibel instability) created in the shocks
are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using
a 3-D relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated
particle acceleration associated with a relativistic jet front propagating
through an ambient plasma with and without initial magnetic fields. We find
only small differences in the results between no ambient and weak ambient
magnetic fields. Simulations show that the Weibel instability created in the
collisionless shock front accelerates particles perpendicular and parallel to
the jet propagation direction. The simulation results show that this
instability is responsible for generating and amplifying highly nonuniform,
small-scale magnetic fields, which contribute to the electron's transverse
deflection behind the jet head. The ``jitter'' radiation from deflected
electrons has different properties than synchrotron radiation which is
calculated in a uniform magnetic field. This jitter radiation may be important
to understanding the complex time evolution and/or spectral structure in
gamma-ray bursts, relativistic jets, and supernova remnants.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Proceedings of 2003 Gamma Ray Burst
Conferenc
Particle acceleration, magnetic field generation, and emission in relativistic pair jets
Shock acceleration is a ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas.
Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel and
other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks are responsible
for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3-D
relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated
particle acceleration associated with a relativistic jet front propagating into
an ambient plasma. We find that the growth times of Weibel instability are
proportional to the Lorentz factors of jets. Simulations show that the Weibel
instability created in the collisionless shock front accelerates jet and
ambient particles both perpendicular and parallel to the jet propagation
direction.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Il nuovo cimento (4th Workshop
Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Afterglow Era, Rome, 18-22 October 2004
Particle Acceleration, Magnetic Field Generation, and Emission in Relativistic Shocks
Shock acceleration is an ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas.
Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel and
other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks are responsible
for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3-D
relativistic electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated
particle acceleration associated with a relativistic jet front propagating into
an ambient plasma. We find small differences in the results for no ambient and
modest ambient magnetic fields. Simulations show that the Weibel instability
created in the collisionless shock front accelerates jet and ambient particles
both perpendicular and parallel to the jet propagation direction. The small
scale magnetic field structure generated by the Weibel instability is
appropriate to the generation of ``jitter'' radiation from deflected electrons
(positrons) as opposed to synchrotron radiation. The jitter radiation resulting
from small scale magnetic field structures may be important for understanding
the complex time structure and spectral evolution observed in gamma-ray bursts
or other astrophysical sources containing relativistic jets and relativistic
collisionless shocks.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, revised and accepted for Advances in Space
Research (35th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Paris, 18-25 July 2004
Particle acceleration in electron-ion jets
Weibel instability created in collisionless shocks is responsible for
particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3-D relativistic
electromagnetic particle (REMP) code, we have investigated particle
acceleration associated with a relativistic electron-ion jet fronts propagating
into an ambient plasma without initial magnetic fields with a longer simulation
system in order to investigate nonlinear stage of the Weibel instability and
its acceleration mechanism. The current channels generated by the Weibel
instability induce the radial electric fields. The z component of the Poynting
vector (E x B) become positive in the large region along the jet propagation
direction. This leads to the acceleration of jet electrons along the jet. In
particular the E x B drift with the large scale current channel generated by
the ion Weibel instability accelerate electrons effectively in both parallel
and perpendicular directions.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, Proceedings for Astrophysical Sources of High
Energy Particles and Radiation, AIP proceeding Series, eds . T. Bulik, G.
Madejski and B. Ruda
- …