TY - THES A1 - Wieland, Volkmar T1 - Particle-in-cell simulations of perpendicular supernova shock fronts T1 - Particle-in-Cell Simulationen von senkrechten Supernova Schock-Fronten N2 - The origin of cosmic rays was the subject of several studies for over a century. The investigations done within this dissertation are one small step to shed some more light on this mystery. Locating the sources of cosmic rays is not trivial due to the interstellar magnetic field. However, the Hillas criterion allows us to arrive at the conclusion that supernova remnants are our main suspect for the origin of galactic cosmic rays. The mechanism by which they are accelerating particles is found within the field of shock physics as diffusive shock acceleration. To allow particles to enter this process also known as Fermi acceleration pre-acceleration processes like shock surfing acceleration and shock drift acceleration are necessary. Investigating the processes happening in the plasma shocks of supernova remnants is possible by utilising a simplified model which can be simulated on a computer using Particle-in-Cell simulations. We developed a new and clean setup to simulate the formation of a double shock, i.e., consisting of a forward and a reverse shock and a contact discontinuity, by the collision of two counter-streaming plasmas, in which a magnetic field can be woven into. In a previous work, we investigated the processes at unmagnetised and at magnetised parallel shocks, whereas in the current work, we move our investigation on to magnetised perpendicular shocks. Due to a much stronger confinement of the particles to the collision region the perpendicular shock develops much faster than the parallel shock. On the other hand, this leads to much weaker turbulence. We are able to find indications for shock surfing acceleration and shock drift acceleration happening at the two shocks leading to populations of pre-accelerated particles that are suitable as a seed population to be injected into further diffusive shock acceleration to be accelerated to even higher energies. We observe the development of filamentary structures in the shock ramp of the forward shock, but not at the reverse shock. This leads to the conclusion that the development of such structures in the shock ramp of quasi-perpendicular collisionless shocks might not necessarily be determined by the existence of a critical sonic Mach number but by a critical shock speed. The results of the investigations done within this dissertation might be useful for further studies of oblique shocks and for studies using hybrid or magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Together with more sophisticated observational methods, these studies will help to bring us closer to an answer as to how particles can be accelerated in supernova remnants and eventually become cosmic rays that can be detected on Earth. N2 - Der Ursprung der kosmischen Strahlung war seit über einem Jahrhundert Gegenstand von zahlreichen Untersuchungen. Die Untersuchungen, welche innerhalb dieser Dissertation gemacht wurden, sind ein kleiner Schritt dazu etwas mehr Licht auf dieses Geheimnis zu werfen. Die Quellen der kosmischen Strahlung herauszufinden stellt sich aufgrund des interstellaren Magnetfeldes als nicht trivial heraus. Jedoch erlaubt uns das Hillas-Kriterium die Schlussfolgerung, dass Supernovaüberreste unsere Hauptverdächtigen für den Ursprung der galaktischen kosmischen Strahlung sind. Der Mechanismus, durch welchen sie Teilchen beschleunigen, kann im Gebiet der Schock-Physik in Form der diffusen Schockbeschleunigung gefunden werden. Um den Teilchen zu ermöglichen an diesem Prozess, der auch als Fermi-Beschleunigung bekannt ist, teilzunehmen, sind Vorbeschleunigungsprozesse wie die Schock-Surfing-Beschleunigung und die Schock-Drift-Beschleunigung nötig. Die Untersuchung der Prozesse in Plasma-Schocks ist durch die Verwendung eines vereinfachten Modells möglich, welches sich mit Hilfe von Particle-in-Cell Simulationen auf einem Computer simulieren lässt. Wir haben einen neuen und sauberen Setup entwickelt um die Entstehung eines Doppelschocks, bestehend aus einem vorwärts und einem rückwärts gerichtet Schock und einer Kontakt-Diskontinuität, durch die Kollision zweier gegeneinander strömender Plasmen, in welche ein Magnetfeld eingelagert werden kann, zu simulieren. In einer vorhergehenden Arbeit haben wir bereits die Prozesse an unmagnetisierten und an magnetisierten parallelen Schocks untersucht, weshalb wir in der vorliegenden Arbeit zu der Untersuchung magnetisierter senkrechter Schocks weiter gegangen sind. Aufgrund eines sehr viel stärkeren Einfangens der Teilchen in der Kollisionsregion, entwickelt sich der senkrechte Schock sehr viel schneller als der parallele Schock. Andererseits führt dies zu einer viel schwächeren Turbulenz. Wir finden Anzeichen für Schock-Surfing-Beschleunigung und Schock-Drift-Beschleunigung in beiden Schocks, welche Populationen von vorbeschleunigten Teilchen erzeugen, die wiederum als Ausgangspopulation für die Injektion in die diffusive Schock-Beschleunigung geeignet sind um zu noch höheren Energien beschleunigt zu werden. Wir beobachten die Entwicklung von Filamentstrukturen in der Schockrampe des vorwärts gerichteten Schocks, jedoch nicht im rückwärts gerichtet Schock. Dies führt zu der Schlussfolgerung, dass die Entwicklung dieser Strukturen in der Schockrampe von quasi-senkrechten kollisionsfreien Schocks nicht notwendigerweise durch die Existenz einer kritischen sonischen Machzahl bestimmt ist, sondern durch eine kritische Schock-Geschwindigkeit. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchungen in dieser Dissertation können sich für weiterführende Untersuchungen von schrägen Schocks und für Untersuchungen mit Hilfe von hybriden oder magnetohydrodynamischen Simulationen als nützlich erweisen. Zusammen mit ausgefeilteren Beobachtungsmethoden helfen uns diese Untersuchungen dabei näher an eine Antwort auf die Frage zu kommen, wie Teilchen in Supernovaüberresten beschleunigt werden können um schließlich als kosmische Strahlung auf der Erde detektiert werden zu können. KW - cosmic rays KW - kosmische Strahlung KW - supernova remnants KW - Supernovaüberreste KW - particle-in-cell simulations Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-74532 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nishikawa, Ken-Ichi A1 - Mizuno, Yosuke A1 - Niemiec, Jacek A1 - Kobzar, Oleh A1 - Pohl, Martin A1 - Gomez, Jose L. A1 - Dutan, Ioana A1 - Frederiksen, Jacob Trier A1 - Nordlund, Ake A1 - Meli, Athina A1 - Sol, Helene A1 - Hardee, Philip E. A1 - Hartmann, Dieter H. T1 - Microscopic Processes in Global Relativistic Jets Containing Helical Magnetic Fields JF - Galaxies : open access journal N2 - In the study of relativistic jets one of the key open questions is their interaction with the environment on the microscopic level. Here, we study the initial evolution of both electron-proton (e(-)-p(+)) and electron-positron (e(+/-)) relativistic jets containing helical magnetic fields, focusing on their interaction with an ambient plasma. We have performed simulations of "global" jets containing helical magnetic fields in order to examine how helical magnetic fields affect kinetic instabilities such as the Weibel instability, the kinetic Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (kKHI) and the Mushroom instability (MI). In our initial simulation study these kinetic instabilities are suppressed and new types of instabilities can grow. In the e(-)-p(+) jet simulation a recollimation-like instability occurs and jet electrons are strongly perturbed. In the e(+/-) jet simulation a recollimation-like instability occurs at early times followed by a kinetic instability and the general structure is similar to a simulation without helical magnetic field. Simulations using much larger systems are required in order to thoroughly follow the evolution of global jets containing helical magnetic fields. KW - relativistic jets KW - particle-in-cell simulations KW - global jets KW - helical magnetic fields KW - kinetic instabilities KW - kink instability Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies4040038 SN - 2075-4434 VL - 4 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - GEN A1 - Nishikawa, Ken-Ichi A1 - Mizuno, Yosuke A1 - Niemiec, Jacek A1 - Kobzar, Oleh A1 - Pohl, Martin A1 - Gómez, Jose L. A1 - Duţan, Ioana A1 - Pe’er, Asaf A1 - Frederiksen, Jacob Trier A1 - Nordlund, Åke A1 - Meli, Athina A1 - Sol, Helene A1 - Hardee, Philip E. A1 - Hartmann, Dieter H. T1 - Microscopic processes in global relativistic jets containing helical magnetic fields T2 - Galaxies N2 - In the study of relativistic jets one of the key open questions is their interaction with the environment on the microscopic level. Here, we study the initial evolution of both electron-proton (e(-)-p(+)) and electron-positron (e(+/-)) relativistic jets containing helical magnetic fields, focusing on their interaction with an ambient plasma. We have performed simulations of "global" jets containing helical magnetic fields in order to examine how helical magnetic fields affect kinetic instabilities such as the Weibel instability, the kinetic Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (kKHI) and the Mushroom instability (MI). In our initial simulation study these kinetic instabilities are suppressed and new types of instabilities can grow. In the e(-)-p(+) jet simulation a recollimation-like instability occurs and jet electrons are strongly perturbed. In the e(+/-) jet simulation a recollimation-like instability occurs at early times followed by a kinetic instability and the general structure is similar to a simulation without helical magnetic field. Simulations using much larger systems are required in order to thoroughly follow the evolution of global jets containing helical magnetic fields. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 446 KW - relativistic jets KW - particle-in-cell simulations KW - global jets KW - helical magnetic fields KW - kinetic instabilities KW - kink instability Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-407604 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nishikawa, Ken-Ichi A1 - Mizuno, Yosuke A1 - Gomez, Jose L. A1 - Dutan, Ioana A1 - Meli, Athina A1 - White, Charley A1 - Niemiec, Jacek A1 - Kobzar, Oleh A1 - Pohl, Martin A1 - Frederiksen, Jacob Trier A1 - Nordlund, Ake A1 - Sol, Helene A1 - Hardee, Philip E. A1 - Hartmann, Dieter H. T1 - Microscopic Processes in Global Relativistic Jets Containing Helical Magnetic Fields: Dependence on Jet Radius JF - Galaxies : open access journal N2 - In this study, we investigate the interaction of jets with their environment at a microscopic level, which is a key open question in the study of relativistic jets. Using small simulation systems during past research, we initially studied the evolution of both electron-proton and electron-positron relativistic jets containing helical magnetic fields, by focusing on their interactions with an ambient plasma. Here, using larger jet radii, we have performed simulations of global jets containing helical magnetic fields in order to examine how helical magnetic fields affect kinetic instabilities, such as the Weibel instability, the kinetic Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (kKHI) and the mushroom instability (MI). We found that the evolution of global jets strongly depends on the size of the jet radius. For example, phase bunching of jet electrons, in particular in the electron-proton jet, is mixed with a larger jet radius as a result of the more complicated structures of magnetic fields with excited kinetic instabilities. In our simulation, these kinetic instabilities led to new types of instabilities in global jets. In the electron-proton jet simulation, a modified recollimation occurred, and jet electrons were strongly perturbed. In the electron-positron jet simulation, mixed kinetic instabilities occurred early, followed by a turbulence-like structure. Simulations using much larger (and longer) systems are required in order to further thoroughly investigate the evolution of global jets containing helical magnetic fields. KW - relativistic jets KW - particle-in-cell simulations KW - global jets KW - helical magnetic fields KW - kinetic instabilities KW - kink-like instability KW - recollimation shocks KW - polarized radiation Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies5040058 SN - 2075-4434 VL - 5 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nishikawa, Ken-Ichi A1 - Mizuno, Yosuke A1 - Gomez, Jose L. A1 - Duţan, Ioana A1 - Meli, Athina A1 - Niemiec, Jacek A1 - Kobzar, Oleh A1 - Pohl, Martin A1 - Sol, Hélène A1 - MacDonald, Nicholas A1 - Hartmann, Dieter H. T1 - Relativistic jet simulations of the weibel instability in the slab model to cylindrical jets with helical magnetic fields JF - Galaxies : open access journal N2 - The particle-in-cell (PIC) method was developed to investigate microscopic phenomena, and with the advances in computing power, newly developed codes have been used for several fields, such as astrophysical, magnetospheric, and solar plasmas. PIC applications have grown extensively, with large computing powers available on supercomputers such as Pleiades and Blue Waters in the US. For astrophysical plasma research, PIC methods have been utilized for several topics, such as reconnection, pulsar dynamics, non-relativistic shocks, relativistic shocks, and relativistic jets. PIC simulations of relativistic jets have been reviewed with emphasis placed on the physics involved in the simulations. This review summarizes PIC simulations, starting with the Weibel instability in slab models of jets, and then focuses on global jet evolution in helical magnetic field geometry. In particular, we address kinetic Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities and mushroom instabilities. KW - particle-in-cell simulations KW - relativistic jets KW - the Weibel instability KW - kink-like instability KW - mushroom instability KW - global jets KW - helical magnetic fields KW - recollimation shocks Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies7010029 SN - 2075-4434 VL - 7 IS - 1 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER -