PIC simulation of a nonoscillatory perturbation on a subcritical fast magnetosonic shock wave

Dieckmann, M E and Huete, C and Cobos, F and Bret, A and Folini, D and Eliasson, B and Walder, R (2024) PIC simulation of a nonoscillatory perturbation on a subcritical fast magnetosonic shock wave. Physica Scripta, 99 (11). 115606. ISSN 0031-8949 (https://doi.org/10.1088/1402-4896/ad87c2)

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Abstract

We use a two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation to study the propagation of subcritical fast magnetosonic shocks in electron-nitrogen plasma and their stability against an initial deformation. A slab of dense plasma launches two planar blast waves into a surrounding ambient plasma, which is permeated by a magnetic field that points out of the simulation box and is spatially uniform at the start of the simulation. One shock propagates into a spatially uniform ambient plasma. This reference shock has a Mach number of 1.75, and the heating of ions only along the shock normal compresses the ions that cross the shock to twice the upstream density. Drift instabilities lead to rapidly growing electron-cyclotron harmonic waves ahead of the location where the shock’s density overshoot peaks, and to slowly growing lower-hybrid waves with a longer wavelength behind it. The second shock wave enters a perturbation layer that deforms it into a sine shape. Once the shock leaves the perturbation layer, the deformation is weakly damped and non-oscillatory, and the shock remains stable. Even without an external perturbation, and for the plasma parameters considered here, drift instabilities will cause ripples in the shock wave. These instabilities lead to a spatially and temporally varying compression of the plasma that crosses the shock.

ORCID iDs

Eliasson, B ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6039-1574

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  Item type:	Article
  ID code:	90890
  Dates:	Date Event 1 November 2024 Published 28 October 2024 Published Online 16 October 2024 Accepted 24 May 2024 Submitted
  Subjects:	Science > Physics
  Department:	Faculty of Science > Physics
  Depositing user:	Pure Administrator
  Date deposited:	17 Oct 2024 14:37
  Last modified:	16 Dec 2024 02:51
  URI:	https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/90890