Relativistic Particle Acceleration in a Folded Current Sheet
The Astrophysical Journal2004Vol. 618(2), pp. L111–L114
Citations Over TimeTop 14% of 2004 papers
Abstract
Two-dimensional particle simulations of a relativistic Harris current sheet of pair plasmashave demonstrated that the system is unstable to the relativistic drift kink instability (RDKI) and that a new kind of acceleration process takes place in the deformed current sheet. This process contributes to the generation of non-thermal particles and contributes to the fast magnetic dissipation in the current sheet structure. The acceleration mechanism and a brief comparison with relativistic magnetic reconnection are presented.
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