Shock front nonstationarity of supercritical perpendicular shocks

Details Shock front nonstationarity of supercritical perpendicular shocks Shock front nonstationarity of supercritical perpendicular shocks

Jun 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003jgra..108.1233h&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics, Volume 108, Issue A6, pp. SSH 3-1, CiteID 1233, DOI 10.1029/2002JA009339

Physics

Plasma Physics

29

Space Plasma Physics: Numerical Simulation Studies, Space Plasma Physics: Shock Waves, Radio Science: Magnetospheric Physics, Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy: Energetic Particles (2114)

Scientific paper

The shock front nonstationarity of perpendicular shocks in super-critical regime is analyzed by examining the coupling between ``incoming'' and ``reflected'' ion populations. For a given set of parameters including the upstream Mach number (M A ) and the fraction α of reflected to incoming ions, a self-consistent, time-stationary solution of the coupling between ion streams and the electromagnetic field is sought for. If such a solution is found, the shock is stationary; otherwise, the shock is nonstationary, leading to a self-reforming shock front often observed in full particle simulations of quasi-perpendicular shocks. A parametric study of this numerical model allows us to define a critical α crit between stationary and nonstationary regimes. The shock can be nonstationary even for relatively low M A (2-5). For a moderate M A (5-10), the critical value α crit is about 15 to 20%. For very high M A (>10), α crit saturates around 20%. Moreover, present full simulations show that self-reformation of the shock front occurs for relatively low β i and disappears for high β i , where β i is the ratio of upstream ion plasma to magnetic field pressures. Results issued from the present theoretical model are found to be in good agreement with full particle simulations for low β i case; this agreement holds as long as the motion of reflected ions is coherent enough (narrow ion ring) to be described by a single population in the model. The present model reveals to be ``at variance'' with full particle simulations results for the high β i case. Present results are also compared with previous hybrid simulations.

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