Acceleration of Electrons at a Curved Shock

Abstract

AbstractThe paper deals with the acceleration of electrons at a nearly perpendicular curved shock wave and results are compared with the case of a plane shock wave. We formulate the equations of motion of an electron in adiabatic approximation and solve them in a special case. The results show that the energy gain of reflected electrons at a curved shock depends on the ratio of the radius of curvature to the shock thickness; for a low ratio the energy gain is significantly lower than at a plane shock, while the energy gain of transmitted electrons is approximately the same as at a plane shock. The analytical solution provides a tool for direct calculations of fluxes of accelerated electrons near the curved shock of given parameters.Subject headings: acceleration of particles — shock waves