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Nature Research, Scientific Reports, 1(4), 2014

DOI: 10.1038/srep03934

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Exploring the nature of collisionless shocks under laboratory conditions

Journal article published in 2014 by A. Stockem, F. Fiuza ORCID, A. Bret ORCID, R. A. Fonseca ORCID, L. O. Silva
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

AbstractCollisionless shocks are pervasive in astrophysics and they are critical to understand cosmic ray acceleration. Laboratory experiments with intense lasers are now opening the way to explore and characterise the underlying microphysics, which determine the acceleration process of collisionless shocks. We determine the shock character – electrostatic or electromagnetic – based on the stability of electrostatic shocks to transverse electromagnetic fluctuations as a function of the electron temperature and flow velocity of the plasma components and we compare the analytical model with particle-in-cell simulations. By making the connection with the laser parameters driving the plasma flows, we demonstrate that shocks with different and distinct underlying microphysics can be explored in the laboratory with state-of-the-art laser systems.