Low Mach-number collisionless electrostatic shocks and associated ion acceleration
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2018

The existence and properties of low Mach-number electrostatic collisionless shocks are investigated with a semi-analytical solution for the shock structure. We show that the properties of the shock obtained in the semi-analytical model can be well reproduced in fully kinetic Eulerian Vlasov-Poisson simulations, where the shock is generated by the decay of an initial density discontinuity. Using this semi-analytical model, we study the effect of electron-to-ion temperature ratio and presence of impurities on both the maximum shock potential and Mach number. We find that even a small amount of impurities can influence the shock properties significantly, including the reflected light ion fraction, which can change several orders of magnitude. Electrostatic shocks in heavy ion plasmas reflect most of the hydrogen impurity ions.

Vlasov

impurities

continuum simulations

collisionless shock

ion acceleration

Författare

Istvan Pusztai

Chalmers, Fysik, Subatomär fysik och plasmafysik

J M Tenbarge

Princeton University

University of Maryland

Aletta Csapo

Chalmers, Fysik, Subatomär fysik och plasmafysik

J Juno

University of Maryland

A Hakim

Longqing Yi

Chalmers, Fysik, Subatomär fysik och plasmafysik

Tünde Fülöp

Chalmers, Fysik, Subatomär fysik och plasmafysik

Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion

0741-3335 (ISSN) 1361-6587 (eISSN)

Vol. 60 3 035004

Fundament

Grundläggande vetenskaper

Ämneskategorier

Fusion, plasma och rymdfysik

DOI

10.1088/1361-6587/aaa2cc

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2022-04-05