• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.293-295
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• 2001

A numerical scheme that incorporates a self-consistent cosmic-ray (CR, hereafter) injection model into the combined gas dynamics and CR diffusion-convection code has been developed. The hydro/CR code can follow in a very cos-effective way the evolution of CR modified shocks by adopting subzone shock-tracking and multi-level Adaptive Mesh Refinement techniques. The injection model is based on interactions of the suprathermal particles with self-generated MHD waves in quasi-parallel shocks. The particle injection is followed numerically by filtering the diffusive flux of suprathermal particles across the shock to upstream region according to a velocity-dependent transparency function, which represents the fraction of leaking suprathermal particles. In the strong shock limit of Mach numbers $\ge$20, significant physical processes such as the injection and acceleration seem to become independent of M, while they are sensitively dependent on M for M < 10. Although some particles injected early in the evolution continue to be accelerated to higher energies, the postshock CR pressure reaches a time asymptotic value due to balance between acceleration and diffusion of the CR particles.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1993.11a
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• pp.359-361
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• 1993

The force exerted on particles when the momentum of light is changed at the boundary is used in accelerating particles in the fluid. So far, particles are accelerated by the gaussian beam focused by lenses or microscopic objectives. In this paper, particles arc moved by the light diffracted from the fiber end. And we proposed the possibility of particle acceleration using the fiber end.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.225-232
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• 2004

Shocks are ubiquitous in astrophysical environments and cosmic-rays (CRs) are known to be accelerated at collisionless shocks via diffusive shock acceleration. It is believed that the CR pressure is important in the evolution of the interstellar medium of our galaxy and most of galactic CRs with energies up to ${\~}\;10^{15}$ eV are accelerated by supernova remnant shocks. In this contribution we have studied the CR acceleration at shocks through numerical simulation of 1D, quasi-parallel shocks for a wide range of shock Mach numbers and shock speeds. We show that CR modified shocks evolve to time-asymptotic states by the time injected particles are accelerated to moderately relativistic energies, and that two shocks with the same Mach number, but with different shock speeds, evolve qualitatively similarly when the results are presented in terms of a characteristic diffusion length and diffusion time. We find that $10^{-4} - 10^{-3}$ of the particles passed through the shock are accelerated to form the CR population, and the injection rate is higher for shocks with higher Mach number. The time asymptotic value for the CR acceleration efficiency is controlled mainly by shock Mach number, and high Mach number shocks all evolve towards efficiencies ${\~}50\%$, regardless of the injection rate and upstream CR pressure. We conclude that the injection rates in strong quasi-parallel shocks are sufficient to lead to significant nonlinear modifications to the shock structures, implying the importance of the CR acceleration at astrophysical shocks.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.483-491
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• 2004

Clusters of galaxies are storage rooms of cosmic rays. They confine the hadronic component of cosmic rays over cosmological time scales due to diffusion, and the electron component due to energy losses. Hadronic cosmic rays can be accelerated during the process of structure formation, because of the supersonic motion of gas in the potential wells created by dark matter. At the shock waves that result from this motion, charged particles can be energized through the first order Fermi process. After discussing the most important evidences for non-thermal phenomena in large scale structures, we describe in some detail the main issues related to the acceleration of particles at these shock waves, emphasizing the possible role of the dynamical backreaction of the accelerated particles on the plasmas involved.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.225-230
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• 2001

Rarefied cosmic plasmas generally do not achieve thermodynamic equilibria, and a natural consequence of this is the presence of a significant population of charged particles with energies well above those of the bulk population. These are exemplified by the galactic cosmic rays, but the importance of these high energy populations extends well beyond that context. I review here some of the basic issues associated with the propagation and acceleration of cosmic rays, especially in the context of collisionless plasma shocks.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.405-412
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• 2004

Cosmological shocks form as an inevitable consequence of gravitational collapse during the large scale structure formation and cosmic-rays (CRs) are known to be accelerated at collisionless shocks via diffusive shock acceleration (DSA). We have calculated the evolution of CR modified shocks for a wide range of shock Mach numbers and shock speeds through numerical simulations of DSA in 1D quasi-parallel plane shocks. The simulations include thermal leakage injection of seed CRs, as well as pre-existing, upstream CR populations. Bohm-like diffusion is assumed. We show that CR modified shocks evolve to time-asymptotic states by the time injected particles are accelerated to moderately relativistic energies (p/mc $\ge$ 1), and that two shocks with the same Mach number, but with different shock speeds, evolve qualitatively similarly when the results are presented in terms of a characteristic diffusion length and diffusion time. We find that $10^{-4} - 10^{-3}$ of the particles passed through the shock are accelerated to form the CR population, and the injection rate is higher for shocks with higher Mach number. The CR acceleration efficiency increases with shock Mach number, but it asymptotes to ${\~}50\%$ in high Mach number shocks, regardless of the injection rate and upstream CR pressure. On the other hand, in moderate strength shocks ($M_s {\le} 5$), the pre-existing CRs increase the overall CR energy. We conclude that the CR acceleration at cosmological shocks is efficient enough to lead to significant nonlinear modifications to the shock structures.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.42.2-43
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• 2018

When galaxy clusters interact, the intergalactic gas collides, forming shocks that are characterized by a low sonic Mach number (~3) but a comparatively high Alfvenic Mach number (~30). Such shocks behave differently from the more common astrophysical shocks, which tend to have higher sonic Mach numbers. We wish to determine whether these shocks, despite their low sonic Mach number, are capable of accelerating particles and thereby contributing to the cosmic ray spectrum. Using the PIC-MHD method, which separates the gas into a thermal and a non-thermal component to increase computational efficiency, and relying on existing PIC simulations to determine the rate at which non-thermal particles are injected in the shock, we investigate the evolution of galaxy cluster shocks and their ability to accelerate particles. Depending on the chosen injection fraction of non-thermal particles into the shock, we find that even low-Mach shocks are capable of accelerating particles. However, the interaction between supra-thermal particles and the local magnetic field triggers instabilities and turbulence in the magnetic field. This causes the shock to weaken, which in turn reduces the effectiveness of the supra-thermal particle injection. We investigate how this influences the shock evolution by reducing the particle injection rate and energy and find that a reduction of the particle injection fraction at this stage causes an immediate reduction of both upstream and downstream instabilities. This inhibits particle acceleration. Over time, as the instabilities fade, the shock surface straightens, allowing the shock to recover. Eventually, we would expect this to increase the efficiency of the particle injection and acceleration to previous levels, starting the same series of events in an ongoing cycle of increasing and decreasing particle acceleration.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2003

Nonthermal particles can be produced due to incomplete thermalization at collisionless shocks and further accelerated to very high energies via diffusive shock acceleration. In a previous study we explored the cosmic ray (CR) acceleration at cosmic shocks through numerical simulations of CR modified, quasi-parallel shocks in 1D plane-parallel geometry with the physical parameters relevant for the shocks emerging in the large scale structure formation of the universe (Kang & Jones 2002). Specifically we considered pancake shocks driven by accretion flows with $U_o = 1500 km\;s^{-l}$ and the preshock gas temperature of $T_o = 10^4 - 10^8K$. In order to consider the CR acceleration at shocks with a broader range of physical properties, in this contribution we present additional simulations with accretion flows with $U_o = 75 - 1500 km\;s^{-l}$ and $T_o = 10^4K$. We also compare the new simulation results with those reported in the previous study. For a given Mach number, shocks with higher speeds accelerate CRs faster with a greater number of particles, since the acceleration time scale is $t_{acc}\;{\propto}\;U_o^{-2}$. However, two shocks with a same Mach number but with different shock speeds evolve qualitatively similarly when the results are presented in terms of diffusion length and time scales. Therefore, the time asymptotic value for the fraction of shock kinetic energy transferred to CRs is mainly controlled by shock Mach number rather than shock speed. Although the CR acceleration efficiency depends weakly on a well-constrained injection parameter, $\epsilon$, and on shock speed for low shock Mach numbers, the dependence disappears for high shock Mach numbers. We present the 'CR energy ratio', ${\phi}(M_s)$, for a wide range of shock parameters and for $\epsilon$ = 0.2 - 0.3 at terminal time of our simulations. We suggest that these values can be considered as time-asymptotic values for the CR acceleration efficiency, since the time-dependent evolution of CR modified shocks has become approximately self-similar before the terminal time.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.59-67
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• 2020

We propose semi-analytic models for the electron momentum distribution in weak shocks that accounts for both in situ acceleration and re-acceleration through diffusive shock acceleration (DSA). In the former case, a small fraction of incoming electrons is assumed to be reflected at the shock ramp and pre-accelerated to the so-called injection momentum, p_inj, above which particles can diffuse across the shock transition and participate in the DSA process. This leads to the DSA power-law distribution extending from the smallest momentum of reflected electrons, p_ref, all the way to the cutoff momentum, p_eq, constrained by radiative cooling. In the latter case, fossil electrons, specified by a power-law spectrum with a cutoff, are assumed to be re-accelerated from p_ref up to p_eq via DSA. We show that, in the in situ acceleration model, the amplitude of radio synchrotron emission depends strongly on the shock Mach number, whereas it varies rather weakly in the re-acceleration model. Considering the rather turbulent nature of shocks in the intracluster medium, such extreme dependence for the in situ acceleration might not be compatible with the relatively smooth surface brightness of observed radio relics.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.103-112
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• 2021

The intracluster medium (ICM) is expected to experience on average about three passages of weak shocks with low sonic Mach numbers, M ≲ 3, during the formation of galaxy clusters. Both protons and electrons could be accelerated to become high energy cosmic rays (CRs) at such ICM shocks via diffusive shock acceleration (DSA). We examine the effects of DSA by multiple shocks on the spectrum of accelerated CRs by including in situ injection/acceleration at each shock, followed by repeated re-acceleration at successive shocks in the test-particle regime. For simplicity, the accelerated particles are assumed to undergo adiabatic decompression without energy loss and escape from the system, before they encounter subsequent shocks. We show that in general the CR spectrum is flattened by multiple shock passages, compared to a single episode of DSA, and that the acceleration efficiency increases with successive shock passages. However, the decompression due to the expansion of shocks into the cluster outskirts may reduce the amplification and flattening of the CR spectrum by multiple shock passages. The final CR spectrum behind the last shock is determined by the accumulated effects of repeated re-acceleration by all previous shocks, but it is relatively insensitive to the ordering of the shock Mach numbers. Thus multiple passages of shocks may cause the slope of the CR spectrum to deviate from the canonical DSA power-law slope of the current shock.