Acceleration

Diffusive Shock Acceleration and Reconnection Acceleration Processes

Shock waves, as shown by simulations and observations, can generate high levels of downstream vortical turbulence, including magnetic islands. We consider a combination of diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) and downstream magnetic-island-reconnection-related processes as an energization mechanism for charged particles. Observations of electron and ion distributions downstream of interplanetary ...

On the Pioneer acceleration as light acceleration

As early as in 1907, Einstein showed that the light speed must be larger at spacetime points with higher gravitational potential. This idea is used here to present a relativistic version of a recent model which explains the acceleration of the Pioneer 10 spaceship as the effect of a universal adiabatic acceleration of light. This phenomenon would have the same observational signature as an acce...

Ion Acceleration—Target Normal Sheath Acceleration*

Energetic ions have been observed since the very first laser-plasma experiments. Their origin was found to be the charge separation of electrons heated by the laser, which transfers energy to the ions accelerated in the field. The advent of ultra-intense lasers with pulse lengths in the femtosecond regime resulted in the discovery of very energetic ions with characteristics quite different from...

Fermi Acceleration

Fermi acceleration is a mechanism, first suggested by Enrico Fermi in 1949, to explain heating of particles in cosmic rays. Fermi studied charged particles being reflected by the moving interstellar magnetic field and either gaining or losing energy, depending on whether the ”magnetic mirror” is approaching or receding. In a typical environment, Fermi argued, the probability of a head-on collis...

Acceleration Algorithm