Abstract
We examine with particle-in-cell simulations how a parallel shock in pair plasma reacts to upstream waves, which are driven by escaping downstream particles. Initially, the shock is sustained in the two-dimensional simulation by a magnetic filamentation (beam-Weibel) instability. Escaping particles drive an electrostatic beam instability upstream. Modifications of the upstream plasma by these waves hardly affect the shock. In time, a decreasing density and an increasing temperature of the escaping particles quench the beam instability. A larger thermal energy along than perpendicular to the magnetic field destabilizes the pair-Alfvén mode. In the rest frame of the upstream plasma, the group velocity of the growing pair-Alfvén waves is below that of the shock and the latter catches up with the waves. Accumulating pair-Alfvén waves gradually change the shock in the two-dimensional simulation from a Weibel-type shock into an Alfvénic shock with a Mach number that is about 6 for our initial conditions.
Highlights
Black hole microquasars are binary systems, in which a stellarmass black hole accretes material from a nearby companion star and ejects a relativistic jet.1–3 The interior of the jet is composed of electrons and positrons and an unknown fraction of ions
We examine with particle-in-cell simulations how a parallel shock in pair plasma reacts to upstream waves, which are driven by escaping downstream particles
The shock is sustained in the two-dimensional simulation by a magnetic filamentation instability
Summary
Black hole microquasars are binary systems, in which a stellarmass black hole accretes material from a nearby companion star and ejects a relativistic jet.1–3 The interior of the jet is composed of electrons and positrons and an unknown fraction of ions. These particles drive the electrostatic instabilities upstream of the shock.14 In time, pair-Alfven waves24 grow in the upstream region of the shocks.
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