Oblique instability and electron acceleration in relativistic unmagnetized cloud-plasma interaction

Abstract

Relativistic unmagnetized cloud-plasma interaction is analyzed by performing linear analysis and particle-in-cell simulation. This course consists of an electron-ion cloud injected into a stationary ambient plasma and has long been a favorite topic in laboratory and space plasmas. An oblique electromagnetic instability dominates the unstable spectrum. In the interaction with the generated electromagnetic fields, the cloud electrons are entirely mixed with the ambient ones and form a hot electron population. The velocity of the cloud ions, however, has not changed significantly from the initial bulk velocity. As this ion cloud propagates into the plasma, it derives an electrostatic field which can accelerate the electrons up to energy equipartition between electrons and ions. The electrostatic field is amplified at the expense of the kinetic energy of ions, and its spatial scale is on the order of the electron skin depth. The electron acceleration in such an electrostatic field is, therefore, a likely process for pre-acceleration of electrons in unmagnetized plasmas.