A Study of Kinetic Effect on Relativistic Shock using 3D PIC simulation

  • Published : 2012.04.03

Abstract

Shocks are evolved when the relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), black hole binaries, supernova remnants (SNR) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) interact with the surrounding medium. The high energy particles are believed to be accelerated by the diffusive shock acceleration and the strong magnetic field is generated by Weibel instability in the shock. When ultrarelativistic electrons with strong magnetic field cool by the synchrotron emission, the radiation is observed in gamma-ray burst and the near-equipartitioned magnetic field in the external shock delays the afterglow emission. In this paper, we performed the 3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations to understand the characteristics of these relativistic shock and particle acceleration. Forward and reverse shocks are shaped while the unmagnetized injecting jet interacts with the unmagnetized ambient medium. Both upstream and downstream become thermalized and the particle accelerations are shown in each transition region of the shock structures.

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