Preexsiting Suprathermal Electrons and Preacceleration at Quasi-Perpendicular Shocks in Merging Galaxy Clusters

Merger shocks with M_s < ~ 3 - 4 have been detected in galaxy clusters through radio observations of synchrotron radiations emitted from cosmic-ray (CR) electrons. The CR electrons are believed to be produced by the so-called diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) at the merger shocks. To describe the acceleration of electrons, the injection into DSA has to be understood. Recent studies have showed that electrons could be energized through stochastic shock drift acceleration (SSDA), a mechanism mediated by multi-scale plasma waves at shock transition zone. However, such preacceleration process seems to be effective only at the supercritical shocks with M_s > ~ 2.3, implying that further studies should be done to explain radio relics with weaker shocks. In this talk, we present the results obtained by fully kinetic 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, which include pre-existing suprathermal electrons possibly ejected from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) or produced by previous episodes of turbulence/shocks. The simulations indicate that the pre-existing electrons enhance the upstream plasma waves in shocks with M_s < ~ 2.3. However, the wavelength of such waves is not long enough to scatter off suprathermal electrons and energize them to the injection momentum for DSA. Hence, we conclude that preexciting suprathermal electrons alone would not solve the problem of electron acceleration at radio relic shocks.