Nonthermal ion acceleration by the kink instability in nonrelativistic jets

Alves, E. P.; Zrake, J.; Fiuza, F.

doi:10.1063/1.5098478

Title: Nonthermal ion acceleration by the kink instability in nonrelativistic jets

Journal Article · 01 July 2019 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5098478 · OSTI ID:1560646

^[1]; Zrake, J. ^[2];

^[1]

SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States). Columbia Astrophysics Lab.

We investigate the self-consistent particle acceleration physics associated with the development of the kink instability (KI) in nonrelativistic, electron-ion plasma jets. Using 3D fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, we show that the KI efficiently converts the initial toroidal magnetic field energy into energetic ions. The accelerated ions form a nonthermal power-law tail in the energy spectrum, containing ≃10% of the initial magnetic field energy, with the maximum ion energy extending to the confinement energy of the jet. We find that the ions are efficiently accelerated by the concerted action of the motional electric field and the highly tangled magnetic field that develop in the nonlinear phase of the KI: fast curvature drift motions of ions across magnetic field lines enable their acceleration along the electric field. We further investigate the role of Coulomb collisions in the ion acceleration efficiency and identify the collisional threshold above which nonthermal ion acceleration is suppressed. Our results reveal how energetic ions may result from unstable nonrelativistic plasma jets in space and astrophysics and provide constraints on the plasma conditions required to reproduce this acceleration mechanism in laboratory experiments.

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Research Organization:: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-76SF00515; FWP 100237; FWP 100331

OSTI ID:: 1560646

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1543064

Journal Information:: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 7; ISSN 1070-664X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 9 works

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