TY  - JOUR
A1  - Niemiec, Jacek
A1  - Pohl, Martin
A1  - Bret, Antoine
A1  - Wieland, Volkmar
T1  - Nonrelativistic parallel shocks in unmagnetized and weakly magnetized plasmas
JF  - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics
N2  - We present results of 2D3V particle-in-cell simulations of nonrelativistic plasma collisions with absent or parallel large-scale magnetic field for parameters applicable to the conditions at young supernova remnants. We study the collision of plasma slabs of different density, leading to two different shocks and a contact discontinuity. Electron dynamics play an important role in the development of the system. While nonrelativistic shocks in both unmagnetized and magnetized plasmas can be mediated by Weibel-type instabilities, the efficiency of shock-formation processes is higher when a large-scale magnetic field is present. The electron distributions downstream of the forward and reverse shocks are generally isotropic, whereas that is not always the case for the ions. We do not see any significant evidence of pre-acceleration, neither in the electron population nor in the ion distribution.
KW  - acceleration of particles
KW  - instabilities
KW  - ISM: supernova remnants
KW  - methods: numerical
KW  - plasmas
KW  - shock waves
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/759/1/73
SN  - 0004-637X
SN  - 1538-4357
VL  - 759
IS  - 1
PB  - IOP Publ. Ltd.
CY  - Bristol
ER  -