Two-stage acceleration of interstellar ions driven by high-energy lepton plasma flows

YunQian Cui, Zheng-Ming Sheng*, QuanMing Lu, YuTong Li, Jie Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)
39 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We present the particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation results of the interaction of a high-energy lepton plasma flow with background electron-proton plasma and focus on the acceleration processes of the protons. It is found that the acceleration follows a two-stage process. In the first stage, protons are significantly accelerated transversely (perpendicular to the lepton flow) by the turbulent magnetic field "islands" generated via the strong Weibel-type instabilities. The accelerated protons shows a perfect inverse-power energy spectrum. As the interaction continues, a shockwave structure forms and the protons in front of the shockwave are reflected at twice of the shock speed, resulting in a quasi-monoenergetic peak located near 200 MeV under the simulation parameters. The presented scenario of ion acceleration may be relevant to cosmic-ray generation in some astrophysical environments.

Original languageEnglish
Article number105201
Number of pages5
JournalScience China: Physics, Mechanics and Astronomy
Volume58
Issue number10
Early online date5 Sept 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2015

Keywords

  • collisionless shock
  • Fermi acceleration
  • lepton plasma flow
  • particle acceleration

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Two-stage acceleration of interstellar ions driven by high-energy lepton plasma flows'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this