Alfvén waves, discontinuities, proton perpendicular acceleration and magnetic decreases (MDs) in interplanetary space are shown to be interrelated. Discontinuities are the phase-steepened edges of Alfvén waves. Magnetic decreases are caused by a diamagnetic effect from perpendicularly accelerated (to the magnetic field) protons. The ion acceleration is associated with the dissipation of phasest...

A particle acceleration mechanism by radiation pressure of precursor waves in a relativistic shock is studied. For a relativistic, perpendicular shock with the upstream bulk Lorentz factor of γ1 ≫ 1, large amplitude electromagnetic (light) waves are known to be excited in the shock front due to the synchrotron maser instability, and those waves can propagate towards upstream as precursor waves....

All electrostatic fields E (i.e., ones with no time dependence) can be derived from a scalar potential V (E = −∇V ) and hence obey ∇ × E = 0. The latter condition is sometimes considered to be a requirement for electrostatic fields. Show, however, that there can exist time-dependent electric fields for which ∇ × E = 0, which have been given the name “electrostatic waves”. In particular, show th...

A two-dimensional isothermal collisional drift-wave turbulence model including magnetic fluctuations is studied numerically. The model has as limits the electrostatic collisional drift-wave and two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic systems. The electromagnetic and electrostatic regimes for thermal gradient-driven ~drift-wave! turbulence are decided by the parameter b̂5(4pnT/B)(Ls /Ln ), where Ls a...

Electron acceleration in high Mach number perpendicular shocks is investigated through two-dimensional electrostatic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. We simulate the shock foot region by modeling particles that consist of three components such as incident protons and electrons and reflected protons in the initial state which satisfies the Buneman instability condition. In contrast to previous...