Particle trajectories in Weibel magnetic filaments with a flow-aligned magnetic field
Abstract
For a Weibel shock to form, two plasma shells have to collide and trigger the Weibel instability. At saturation, this instability generates magnetic filaments in the overlapping region with peak field f]]> . In the absence of an external guiding magnetic field, these filaments can block the incoming flow, initiating the shock formation, if their size is larger than the Larmor radius of the incoming particles in the peak field. Here we show that this result still holds in the presence of an external magnetic field, provided it is not too high. Yet, for 0\gtrsim Bf/2, the filaments become unable to stop any particle, regardless of its initial velocity.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Plasma Physics
- Pub Date:
- August 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S0022377816000702
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1607.07442
- Bibcode:
- 2016JPlPh..82d9003B
- Keywords:
-
- Physics - Plasma Physics;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 11 pages, 6 figures. To appear in Journal of Plasma Physics