Pre-acceleration Of Electrons Research Articles

Addressing key aspects of J × B driven MeV fast electron generation in ultra-short ultra-intense laser foil interaction

Applicability of J × B mechanism of MeV fast electron generation is clearly demonstrated through observation of directed electron beam along laser propagation direction (simultaneous emission also along laser polarization/transverse directions) in the interaction of ∼25 fs laser pulse with thin foil target at an intensity of 1–7 × 1019 W/cm2. Fast electron temperature is found to be lower (higher) than ponderomotive for shorter (longer) preplasma scale lengths. Role of pre-acceleration of electrons in the rising part of the laser pulse is suggested for observed efficient J × B acceleration for p-polarization case. 2D particle in cell simulation also supports the above-mentioned observations.

Electron Acceleration by Moderate-Mach-number Low-β Shocks: Particle-in-Cell Simulations

Particle acceleration is ubiquitous at shock waves, occurring on scales ranging from supernova remnants in the universe to coronal-mass-ejection-driven shocks and planetary bow shocks in the heliosphere. The most promising mechanism responsible for the almost universally observed power-law spectra is diffusive shock acceleration (DSA). However, how electrons are preaccelerated by different shocks to the energy required by the DSA theory is still unclear. In this paper, we perform two-dimensional particle-in-cell plasma simulations to investigate how the magnetic field orientations, with respect to simulation planes, affect electron preacceleration in moderate-Mach-number low- β shocks. Simulation results show that instabilities can be different as the simulation planes capture different trajectories of particles. For magnetic fields perpendicular to the simulation plane, electron cyclotron drift instability dominates in the foot. Electrons can be trapped by the electrostatic wave and undergo shock-surfing acceleration. For magnetic fields lying in the simulation plane, whistler waves produced by modified two-stream instability dominate in the foot and scatter the electrons. In both cases, electrons undergo multistage acceleration in the foot, shock surface, and immediate downstream, during which process shock-surfing acceleration takes place as part of the preacceleration mechanism in moderate-Mach-number quasi-perpendicular shocks.

Electron Preacceleration at Weak Quasi-perpendicular Intracluster Shocks: Effects of Preexisting Nonthermal Electrons

Abstract Radio relics in the outskirts of galaxy clusters imply the diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) of electrons at merger-driven shocks with Mach number M s ≲ 3–4 in the intracluster medium (ICM). Recent studies have suggested that electron preacceleration and injection, prerequisite steps for DSA, could occur at supercritical shocks with M s ≳ 2.3 in the ICM, thanks to the generation of multiscale waves by microinstabilities such as the Alfvén ion cyclotron (AIC) instability, the electron firehose instability (EFI), and the whistler instability (WI). On the other hand, some relics are observed to have subcritical shocks with M s ≲ 2.3, leaving DSA at such weak shocks as an outstanding problem. Reacceleration of preexisting nonthermal electrons has been contemplated as one of possible solutions for that puzzle. To explore this idea, we perform particle-in-cell simulations for weak quasi-perpendicular shocks in high-β (β = P gas/P B ) plasmas with power-law suprathermal electrons in addition to Maxwellian thermal electrons. We find that suprathermal electrons enhance the excitation of electron-scale waves via the EFI and WI. However, they do not affect the ion reflection and the ensuing generation of ion-scale waves via the AIC instability. The presence of ion-scale waves is the key for the preacceleration of electrons up to the injection momentum; thus, the shock criticality condition for electron injection to DSA is preserved. Based on the results, we conclude that preexisting nonthermal electrons in the preshock region alone would not resolve the issue of electron preacceleration at subcritical ICM shocks.

Effects of Multiscale Plasma Waves on Electron Preacceleration at Weak Quasi-perpendicular Intracluster Shocks

Abstract Radio relics associated with merging galaxy clusters indicate the acceleration of relativistic electrons in merger-driven shocks with low sonic Mach numbers (M s ≲ 3) in the intracluster medium (ICM). Recent studies have suggested that electron injection to diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) could take place through the so-called Fermi-like acceleration in the shock foot of β = P gas/P B ≈ 20–100 shocks and the stochastic shock drift acceleration (SSDA) in the shock transition of β ≈ 1–5 shocks. Here, we explore how the SSDA can facilitate electron preacceleration in weak quasi-perpendicular (Q ⊥) shocks in β ≈ 20–100 plasmas by performing particle-in-cell simulations in a two-dimensional domain large enough to properly encompass ion-scale waves. We find that in supercritical shocks with M s ≳ M AIC * ∼ 2.3 , multiscale waves are excited by the ion and electron temperature anisotropies in the downstream of the shock ramp, and that through stochastic pitch-angle scattering off the induced waves, electrons are confined in the shock transition for an extended period. Gaining energy through the gradient-drift along the motional electric field, electrons could be preaccelerated all the way to injection to DSA at such ICM shocks. Our findings imply that the electron DSA process at weak ICM shocks could explain the origin of radio relics. However, a further investigation of electron acceleration at subcritical shocks with M s < 2.3 is called for, since the Mach numbers of some observed radio relic shocks derived from radio or X-ray observations are as low as M s ∼ 1.5.

Electron Firehose Instabilities in High-β Intracluster Shocks

Abstract The preacceleration of electrons through reflection and shock drift acceleration (SDA) is essential for the diffusive shock acceleration of nonthermal electrons in collisionless shocks. Previous studies suggested that, in weak quasi-perpendicular (Q ⊥) shocks in the high-β ( ) intracluster medium (ICM), the temperature anisotropy due to SDA-reflected electrons can drive the electron firehose instability, which excites oblique nonpropagating waves in the shock foot. In this paper, we investigate, through a linear analysis and particle-in-cell simulations, the firehose instabilities driven by an electron temperature anisotropy (ETAFI) and also by a drifting electron beam (EBFI) in β ∼ 100 ICM plasmas. The EBFI should be more relevant to describing the self-excitation of upstream waves in Q ⊥-shocks, since backstreaming electrons in the shock foot behave more like an electron beam rather than an anisotropic bi-Maxwellian population. We find that the basic properties of the two instabilities, such as the growth rate, γ, and the wavenumber of fast-growing oblique modes, are similar in the ICM environment, with one exception; while the waves excited by the ETAFI are nonpropagating (ω r = 0), those excited by the EBFI have a nonzero frequency ( ). However, the frequency is small with ω r < γ. Thus, we conclude that the interpretation of previous studies for the nature of upstream waves based on the ETAFI remains valid in Q ⊥-shocks in the ICM.

Enhanced high-order harmonic generation in semiconductors by excitation with multicolor pulses

We investigate high-order harmonic generation in ZnO driven by linearly polarized multi-color pulses. It is shown that the intensities of the harmonics in the plateau region can be enhanced by two to three orders of magnitude when driven by two- or three-color fields as compared with the single-color pulse excitation. By analyzing the time-dependent population in the conduction band as function of both the initial and the moving crystal momenta, we demonstrate that this remarkable enhancement originates from the intraband preacceleration of electrons from their initial momenta to the top of the valence band where interband excitation takes place. We show that this preacceleration strongly increases the population in the conduction band and correspondingly the intensities of high harmonics in the plateau region. Our results confirm the very recently proposed four-step model for high harmonic generation in semiconductors [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 193901 (2019)] and provide an effective way to enhance the intensities of harmonics in the plateau region which has significant implications for the generation of bright attosecond light sources from semiconductors.

Generation of ultrafast electron bunch trains via trapping into multiple periods of plasma wakefields

We demonstrate a novel approach to the generation of femtosecond electron bunch trains via laser-driven wakefield acceleration. We use two independent high-intensity laser pulses, a drive, and an injector, each creating their own plasma wakes. The interaction of the laser pulses and their wakes results in a periodic injection of free electrons in the drive plasma wake via several mechanisms, including ponderomotive drift, wake-wake interference, and pre-acceleration of electrons directly by strong laser fields. Electron trains were generated with up to four quasi-monoenergetic bunches, each separated in time by a plasma period. The time profile of the generated trains is deduced from an analysis of beam loading and confirmed using 2D particle-in-cell simulations.

Kinetic Simulations of Nonrelativistic Perpendicular Shocks of Young Supernova Remnants. II. Influence of Shock-surfing Acceleration on Downstream Electron Spectra

Abstract We explore electron preacceleration at high-Mach-number nonrelativistic perpendicular shocks at, e.g., young supernova remnants, which are a prerequisite of further acceleration to very high energies via diffusive shock acceleration. Using fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations of shocks and electron dynamics in them, we investigate the influence of shock-surfing acceleration (SSA) at the shock foot on the nonthermal population of electrons downstream of the shock. The SSA is followed by further energization at the shock ramp where the Weibel instability spawns a type of second-order Fermi acceleration. The combination of these two processes leads to the formation of a nonthermal electron population, but the importance of SSA becomes smaller for larger ion-to-electron mass ratios in the simulation. We discuss the resulting electron spectra and the relevance of our results to the physics of systems with real ion-to-electron mass ratios and fully three-dimensional behavior.

Electron Preacceleration in Weak Quasi-perpendicular Shocks in High-beta Intracluster Medium

Abstract Giant radio relics in the outskirts of galaxy clusters are known to be lit up by the relativistic electrons produced via diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) in shocks with low sonic Mach numbers, M s ≲ 3. The particle acceleration at these collisionless shocks critically depends on the kinetic plasma processes that govern the injection to DSA. Here, we study the preacceleration of suprathermal electrons in weak, quasi-perpendicular (Q ⊥) shocks in the hot, high-β (β = P gas/P B) intracluster medium (ICM) through two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Guo et al. showed that, in high-β Q ⊥-shocks, some of the incoming electrons could be reflected upstream and gain energy via shock drift acceleration (SDA). The temperature anisotropy due to the SDA-energized electrons then induces the electron firehose instability (EFI), and oblique waves are generated, leading to a Fermi-like process and multiple cycles of SDA in the preshock region. We find that such electron preacceleration is effective only in shocks above a critical Mach number . This means that, in ICM plasmas, Q ⊥-shocks with M s ≲ 2.3 may not efficiently accelerate electrons. We also find that, even in Q ⊥-shocks with M s ≳ 2.3, electrons may not reach high enough energies to be injected to the full Fermi-I process of DSA, because long-wavelength waves are not developed via the EFI alone. Our results indicate that additional electron preaccelerations are required for DSA in ICM shocks, and the presence of fossil relativistic electrons in the shock upstream region may be necessary to explain observed radio relics.

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

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.

Electron Pre-acceleration at Nonrelativistic High-Mach-number Perpendicular Shocks

Abstract We perform particle-in-cell simulations of perpendicular nonrelativistic collisionless shocks to study electron heating and pre-acceleration for parameters that permit the extrapolation to the conditions at young supernova remnants. Our high-resolution large-scale numerical experiments sample a representative portion of the shock surface and demonstrate that the efficiency of electron injection is strongly modulated with the phase of the shock reformation. For plasmas with low and moderate temperature (plasma beta and ), we explore the nonlinear shock structure and electron pre-acceleration for various orientations of the large-scale magnetic field with respect to the simulation plane, while keeping it at 90° to the shock normal. Ion reflection off of the shock leads to the formation of magnetic filaments in the shock ramp, resulting from Weibel-type instabilities, and electrostatic Buneman modes in the shock foot. In all of the cases under study, the latter provides first-stage electron energization through the shock-surfing acceleration mechanism. The subsequent energization strongly depends on the field orientation and proceeds through adiabatic or second-order Fermi acceleration processes for configurations with the out-of-plane and in-plane field components, respectively. For strictly out-of-plane field, the fraction of suprathermal electrons is much higher than for other configurations, because only in this case are the Buneman modes fully captured by the 2D simulation grid. Shocks in plasma with moderate provide more efficient pre-acceleration. The relevance of our results to the physics of fully 3D systems is discussed.

The effect of superluminal phase velocity on electron acceleration in a powerful electromagnetic wave

In this paper, we examine the effect that electromagnetic dispersion has on the motion of an electron in a relativistically strong plane wave. We obtain an analytic solution for the electron momentum and check this solution against direct numerical integration of the equations of motion. The solution shows that even a relatively small difference between the phase velocity of the wave, vp, and the speed of light, c, can significantly alter the electron dynamics if the normalized wave amplitude a0 exceeds 2c/(vp−c). At this amplitude, the maximum longitudinal electron momentum scales only linearly with a0, as opposed to a02. We also show that at this amplitude the impact of an accelerating longitudinal electric field and electron pre-acceleration is negated by the superluminous phase velocity of the wave. This has implications for the potential of Direct Laser Acceleration of electrons. We point out that electromagnetic dispersion can arise from both propagation in a plasma and from propagating the laser in...

Quasimonoenergetic GeV electron bunch generation by the wake-field of the chirped laser pulse

One-dimensional nonlinear analysis of wake-field generation and electron bunch acceleration by a chirped laser pulse were investigated numerically. It was found that the optimum linear chirp parameter leads to the wake-field amplitude increase by one order of magnitude and accordingly the acceleration gradient. In our external injection scheme, electrons were accelerated using the initial energy of 100 KeV (γin=1.2). When the pulse passes through the electron bunch most part of the electrons trapped in the first cycle of the laser wake-field and accelerate to about 1 GeV in 1.8 mm. We concluded that the expensive electron preacceleration mechanism could be omitted in a laser-aided electron acceleration scheme.

Electron Preacceleration Mechanisms in the Foot Region of High Alfvenic Mach Number Shocks

High Mach number, collisionless perpendicular shocks are known to accelerate electrons to strongly relativistic energies by diffusive shock acceleration. This presupposes the existence of mildly relativistic electrons, whose preacceleration mechanism from lower ambient energies (the injection problem) remains an open question. Here a particle in cell simulation is used to investigate the preacceleration mechanism. Depending on the parameters of the upstream plasma and the shock velocity, the growth rate of instabilities in the foot of the shock can be significant, leading to the existence of nonlinear modes and the formation of electron phase space holes. It is found that these are associated with electron preacceleration, which can be divided into three phases. In the initial phase electrons are accelerated in the shock foot by the surfatron mechanism, which involves particle trapping in nonlinear wave modes. This mechanism is strongly linked to the existence of solitary electron phase space holes. The second phase is characterized by fluctuations in the magnetic field strength together with μ-conserving motion of the electrons. Finally, in the third phase the magnetic moment μ is no longer conserved, perhaps due to turbulent scattering processes. Energies up to Lorentz factors of 6 are achieved, for simulations in which the inflow kinetic energy of upstream electrons is 3.5 keV.

Time-dependent modelling of the Markarian 501 X-ray and TeV gamma-ray data taken during 1997 March and April

If the high-energy emission from TeV blazars is produced by the Synchrotron Self-Compton (SSC) mechanism, then simultaneous X-ray and gamma-ray observations of these objects are a powerful probe of the electron (and positron) populations responsible for this emission. Understanding the emitting particle distributions and their temporal evolution in turn allows us to probe physical conditions in the inner blazar jet and test, for example, various acceleration scenarios. Furthermore, by constraining the SSC model parameters, such observations enable us to predict the intrinsic (unabsorbed) gamma-ray energy spectra of these sources, a major uncertainty in current attempts to use gamma-ray observations to constrain the intensity of the Diffuse Extragalactic Background Radiation (DEBRA) at optical/infrared wavelengths. As a next step in testing the SSC model and as a demonstration of the potential power of coordinated X-ray and gamma-ray observations, we model in detail the X-ray and gamma-ray light curves of the TeV blazar Mrk 501 during its 1997 April-May outburst with a time-dependent SSC model. Extensive, quasi-simultaneous X-ray and gamma-ray coverage exists for this period. We discuss and explore quantitatively several of the flare scenarios presented in the literature. We show that simple two-component models (with a soft, steady X-ray component plus a variable SSC component) involving substantial pre-acceleration of electrons to Lorentz factors on the order of γ m i n = 10 5 describe the data train surprisingly well. All considered models imply an emission region that is strongly out of equipartition and low radiative efficiencies (ratio between kinetic jet luminosity and comoving radiative luminosity) of 1 per-mill and less. Degeneracy in both, model variant and jet parameters, prevents us from using the time-resolved SSC calculations to tighten substantially the constraints on the amount of extragalactic gamma-ray extinction by the DEBRA in the relevant 0.5-50 μm wavelength range, compared with earlier work.

The Influence of Electron Temperature and Magnetic Field Strength on Cosmic‐Ray Injection in High Mach Number Shocks

Electron preacceleration from thermal to mildly relativistic energies in high Mach number shocks (the injection problem) is an outstanding issue in understanding synchrotron radiation from supernova remnants. At high Alfvenic Mach numbers, collisionless perpendicular shocks reflect a fraction of the upstream ions. This gives rise to two-stream instabilities, which in turn can accelerate ions. However, in astrophysical plasmas, the value of β—the ratio of kinetic pressure to magnetic pressure—is not well known. We have used a particle in cell simulation code to investigate the influence of β on the shock structure and on the electron acceleration (assuming thermodynamic equilibrium in the undisturbed plasma, β = βi = βe). Previous simulations at low values of β showed that the phase space distributions of electrons and ions became highly structured: characteristic holes appear in the electron phase space, and the shock dynamics exhibit reformation processes. However, we find that all these features disappear at higher β due to the high initial thermal velocity of the electrons. It follows that the electron cosmic-ray injection mechanism depends strongly on β, that is, on the electron temperature normalized to the magnetic field upstream.

Electron kinetics in collisionless shock waves

We study the kinetic model of the formation of the energy spectrum of nonthermal electrons near the front of a quasilongitudinal, supercritical, collisionless shock wave. Nonresonant interactions of the electrons and the fluctuations generated by kinetic instabilities of the ions in the transition region inside the shock front play the main role in the heating and preacceleration of electrons. We calculate the electron energy spectrum in the vicinity of the shock wave and show that the heating and preacceleration of electrons occur on a scale of the order of several hundred ion inertial lengths in the vicinity of the viscous discontinuity. Although the electron distribution function is significantly nonequilibrium near the shock front, its low-energy part can be approximated by a Maxwellian distribution. The effective electron temperature T eff 2 behind the front, obtained in this manner, increases with the Mach number of the shock wave slower than it would if it followed the Hugoniot adiabat. We determine the condition under which the electron heating is ineffective but the electrons are effectively accelerated to high energies. The high-energy asymptotic behavior of the distribution function is that of a power law, with the exponent determined by the total compression ratio of the plasma, as in the case of acceleration by the first-order Fermi mechanism. The model is used to describe the case (important for applications) of acceleration of electrons by shock waves with large total Mach numbers, with the structure of these waves modified by the nonlinear interaction of nonthermal ions and consisting of an extended prefront with a smooth variation of the macroscopic parameters and a viscous discontinuity in speed with a moderate value of the Mach number.