Change of a Weibel-type to an Alfvénic shock in pair plasma by upstream waves

M. E. Dieckmann; J. D. Riordan; A. Pe'er

doi:10.1063/5.0003596

Change of a Weibel-type to an Alfvénic shock in pair plasma by upstream waves

M. E. Dieckmann, J. D. Riordan, A. Pe'er

Department of Physics

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2 Scopus citations

Abstract

We examine with particle-in-cell simulations how a parallel shock in pair plasma reacts to upstream waves, which are driven by escaping downstream particles. Initially, the shock is sustained in the two-dimensional simulation by a magnetic filamentation (beam-Weibel) instability. Escaping particles drive an electrostatic beam instability upstream. Modifications of the upstream plasma by these waves hardly affect the shock. In time, a decreasing density and an increasing temperature of the escaping particles quench the beam instability. A larger thermal energy along than perpendicular to the magnetic field destabilizes the pair-Alfvén mode. In the rest frame of the upstream plasma, the group velocity of the growing pair-Alfvén waves is below that of the shock and the latter catches up with the waves. Accumulating pair-Alfvén waves gradually change the shock in the two-dimensional simulation from a Weibel-type shock into an Alfvénic shock with a Mach number that is about 6 for our initial conditions.

Original language	English
Article number	062107
Journal	Physics of Plasmas
Volume	27
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0003596
State	Published - 1 Jun 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Author(s).

Funding

The simulation was performed on resources provided by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) at HPC2N (Umea). AP acknowledges support from the EU via the ERC Grant (O.M.J.). This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958 and by the KITP at Santa Barbara. Raw data were generated at the HPC2N large scale facility. The simulation was performed on resources provided by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) at HPC2N (Umeå). AP acknowledges support from the EU via the ERC Grant (O.M.J.). This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958 and by the KITP at Santa Barbara. Raw data were generated at the HPC2N large scale facility.

Funders	Funder number
National Science Foundation	PHY-1748958
University of California, Santa Barbara
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	773062
European Commission
European Commission

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abstract = "We examine with particle-in-cell simulations how a parallel shock in pair plasma reacts to upstream waves, which are driven by escaping downstream particles. Initially, the shock is sustained in the two-dimensional simulation by a magnetic filamentation (beam-Weibel) instability. Escaping particles drive an electrostatic beam instability upstream. Modifications of the upstream plasma by these waves hardly affect the shock. In time, a decreasing density and an increasing temperature of the escaping particles quench the beam instability. A larger thermal energy along than perpendicular to the magnetic field destabilizes the pair-Alfv{\'e}n mode. In the rest frame of the upstream plasma, the group velocity of the growing pair-Alfv{\'e}n waves is below that of the shock and the latter catches up with the waves. Accumulating pair-Alfv{\'e}n waves gradually change the shock in the two-dimensional simulation from a Weibel-type shock into an Alfv{\'e}nic shock with a Mach number that is about 6 for our initial conditions.",

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AB - We examine with particle-in-cell simulations how a parallel shock in pair plasma reacts to upstream waves, which are driven by escaping downstream particles. Initially, the shock is sustained in the two-dimensional simulation by a magnetic filamentation (beam-Weibel) instability. Escaping particles drive an electrostatic beam instability upstream. Modifications of the upstream plasma by these waves hardly affect the shock. In time, a decreasing density and an increasing temperature of the escaping particles quench the beam instability. A larger thermal energy along than perpendicular to the magnetic field destabilizes the pair-Alfvén mode. In the rest frame of the upstream plasma, the group velocity of the growing pair-Alfvén waves is below that of the shock and the latter catches up with the waves. Accumulating pair-Alfvén waves gradually change the shock in the two-dimensional simulation from a Weibel-type shock into an Alfvénic shock with a Mach number that is about 6 for our initial conditions.

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Change of a Weibel-type to an Alfvénic shock in pair plasma by upstream waves

Abstract

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