Student : NAKANOTANI Masaru
Advisor : MAZELLE Christian
Start : Octobre 2015
Group : PEPS
Collisionless shock waves play a crucial role in producing high energy particles (cosmic rays) in space. While most of the past studies about particle acceleration assume the presence of a single shock, in space two shocks frequently come close to or even collide with each other. It was observed that the collision of an interplanetary shock and the earth’s bow shock and the associated acceleration of energetic ions. The kinetic natures of a shock-shock collision has not been well understood.
We expect that electron acceleration can also occur in shock-shock collision. To investigate the electron acceleration process in a shock-shock collision, we perform one-dimensional full particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. In the simulation energetic electrons are observed between the two approaching shocks before colliding.
We further discuss observational results of an interaction of interplanetary shocks and the earth’s bow shock by examining mainly Cluster data. We focus on whether or not electrons are accelerated in the shock-shock interaction.