@article{StromanPohlNiemiecetal.2012,
  author    = {Stroman, Thomas and Pohl, Martin and Niemiec, Jacek and Bret, Antoine},
  title     = {Could cosmic rays affect instabilities in the Transition layer of nonrealativistic collisionless shocks?},
  series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics},
  volume    = {746},
  journal   = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.},
  address   = {Bristol},
  issn      = {0004-637X},
  doi       = {10.1088/0004-637X/746/1/24},
  pages     = {10},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {There is an observational correlation between astrophysical shocks and nonthermal particle distributions extending to high energies. As a first step toward investigating the possible feedback of these particles on the shock at the microscopic level, we perform particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of a simplified environment consisting of uniform, interpenetrating plasmas, both with and without an additional population of cosmic rays. We vary the relative density of the counterstreaming plasmas, the strength of a homogeneous parallel magnetic field, and the energy density in cosmic rays. We compare the early development of the unstable spectrum for selected configurations without cosmic rays to the growth rates predicted from linear theory, for assurance that the system is well represented by the PIC technique. Within the parameter space explored, we do not detect an unambiguous signature of any cosmic-ray-induced effects on the microscopic instabilities that govern the formation of a shock. We demonstrate that an overly coarse distribution of energetic particles can artificially alter the statistical noise that produces the perturbative seeds of instabilities, and that such effects can be mitigated by increasing the density of computational particles.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{NiemiecPohlBretetal.2012,
  author    = {Niemiec, Jacek and Pohl, Martin and Bret, Antoine and Wieland, Volkmar},
  title     = {Nonrelativistic parallel shocks in unmagnetized and weakly magnetized plasmas},
  series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics},
  volume    = {759},
  journal   = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.},
  address   = {Bristol},
  issn      = {0004-637X},
  doi       = {10.1088/0004-637X/759/1/73},
  pages     = {20},
  year      = {2012},
  abstract  = {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.},
  language  = {en}
}