On electron pre-energization by magnetized collisionless shocks in expanding laboratory plasmas

ORAL

Abstract

Magnetized collisionless shocks are common features in space and astrophysical systems where supersonic plasma flows interact, such as in the solar wind, the heliopause, and supernova remnants. Recent experimental capabilities and diagnostics allow detailed laboratory investigations of high-Mach number shocks. Using particle-in-cell simulations, we demonstrate the mechanism and the associated requirements of experiments for generation of energetic electron populations in laboratory high-Mach number collisionless shocks. We show through a parameter study that electron acceleration by magnetized collisionless shocks is feasible in laboratory experiments. Conditions for experimental observation of pre-accelerated electrons are formulated.

* Simulations were conducted on the Titan supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, supported by the Office of Science of the DOE under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. This research was also supported by the DOE under Contracts No. DE-SC0014405, DE-SC0016249, and DE-NA0003612.

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Authors

  • Kirill Lezhnin

    Princeton University

  • W Fox

    Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, PPPL

  • D.B. Schaeffer

    Princeton University, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA, Princeton, University of California, Los Angeles, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, Princeton University, Princeton Center for Heliophysics

  • Jack Matteucci

    Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University

  • Amitava Bhattacharjee

    Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

  • Anatoly Spitkovsky

    Princeton University, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Princeton NJ, 08544, USA, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

  • Kai Germaschewski

    Univ of New Hampshire, University of New Hampshire