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Electron acceleration in laboratory-produced turbulent collisionless shocks

Journal Article · · Nature Physics
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [2];  [2];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [3];  [8];  [9];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [5];  [10];  [11];  [2];  [2]
  1. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
  2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  3. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Lab. for Laser Energetics
  5. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB (Canada)
  6. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  7. Friedrich-Alexander-Univ. Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany)
  8. Oxford Univ. (United Kingdom)
  9. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  10. Osaka Univ. (Japan)
  11. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Astrophysical collisionless shocks are among the most powerful particle accelerators in the Universe. Generated by violent interactions of supersonic plasma flows with the interstellar medium, supernova remnant shocks are observed to amplify magnetic fields and accelerate electrons and protons to highly relativistic speeds. In the well-established model of diffusive shock acceleration, relativistic particles are accelerated by repeated shock crossings. However, this requires a separate mechanism that pre-accelerates particles to enable shock crossing. This is known as the ‘injection problem’, which is particularly relevant for electrons, and remains one of the most important puzzles in shock acceleration. In most astrophysical shocks, the details of the shock structure cannot be directly resolved, making it challenging to identify the injection mechanism. In this letter we report results from laser-driven plasma flow experiments, and related simulations, that probe the formation of turbulent collisionless shocks in conditions relevant to young supernova remnants. We show that electrons can be effectively accelerated in a first-order Fermi process by small-scale turbulence produced within the shock transition to relativistic non-thermal energies, helping overcome the injection problem. Our observations provide new insight into electron injection at shocks and open the way for controlled laboratory studies of the physics underlying cosmic accelerators.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) (SC-24)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; AC52-07NA27344; NA0002725
OSTI ID:
1635109
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1729741
OSTI ID: 1635110
OSTI ID: 1658455
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-811841
Journal Information:
Nature Physics, Journal Name: Nature Physics Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 16; ISSN 1745-2473
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group (NPG)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Measurements of the Growth and Saturation of Electron Weibel Instability in Optical-Field Ionized Plasmas journal December 2020

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Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
High-energy-density plasmas
astrophysical plasmas
collisionless shocks
particle acceleration
Physics - Plasma physics
astrophysical plasmas
collisionless shocks
high-energy-density plasmas
particle acceleration