Speaker
Description
Recent studies of weak heliospheric shocks and shocks propagating in relativistic pair plasma have shown that pre-existing turbulence does indeed play a significant role in the shock dynamics and particle acceleration. We present the first 2D3V particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of electron-ion non-relativistic oblique shocks that explore the interaction of the foreshock with pre-existing compressive turbulence with relative amplitude of 15\%. With pre-existing upstream turbulence we observe non-thermal electrons that are more numerous, reach higher energies, and carry a larger portion of the total energy.
We shall also discuss some issues in setting up compressive or Alfvenic turbulence in PIC simulations, and the computational requirements that results from them.