Nonstationarity of a two-dimensional perpendicular shock: Competing mechanisms

Details Nonstationarity of a two-dimensional perpendicular shock: Competing mechanisms Nonstationarity of a two-dimensional perpendicular shock: Competing mechanisms

Mar 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009jgra..11403217l&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 114, Issue A3, CiteID A03217

Physics

Plasma Physics

13

Space Plasma Physics: Shock Waves (4455), Interplanetary Physics: Planetary Bow Shocks, Magnetospheric Physics: Numerical Modeling, Magnetospheric Physics: Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, Space Plasma Physics: Wave/Particle Interactions (2483, 6984)

Scientific paper

Two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are used for analyzing in detail different nonstationary behaviors of a perpendicular supercritical shock. A recent study by Hellinger et al. (2007) has shown that the front of a supercritical shock can be dominated by the emission of large-amplitude whistler waves. These waves inhibit the self-reformation driven by the reflected ions; then, the shock front appears almost ``quasi-stationary.'' The present study stresses new complementary results. First, for a fixed β i value, the whistler waves emission (WWE) persists for high M A above a critical Mach number (i.e., M A >= M A WWE). The quasi-stationarity is only apparent and disappears when considering the full 3-D field profiles. Second, for lower M A , the self-reformation is retrieved and becomes dominant as the amplitude of the whistler waves becomes negligible. Third, there exists a transition regime in M A within which both processes compete each other. Fourth, these results are observed for a strictly perpendicular shock only as B 0 is within the simulation plane. When B 0 is out of the simulation plane, no whistler waves emission is evidenced and only self-reformation is recovered. Fifth, the occurrence and disappearance of the nonlinear whistler waves are well recovered in both 2-D PIC and 2-D hybrid simulations. The impacts on the results of the mass ratio (2-D PIC simulations), of the resistivity and spatial resolution (2-D hybrid simulations), and of the size of the simulation box along the shock front are analyzed in detail.

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