Particle Injection and Acceleration at Shock in Interplanetary Space: Kinetic Simulations

Shocks in interplanetary space are known to be an important site for particle acceleration. Because of high-resolution data, the Earth's bow shock used to be a source for detailed information of shock structure and particle injection and particle acceleration. However, recent interplanetary missions such as SOHO, WIND and ACE provided excellent data of interplanetary shocks and provided new insights and enriched the knowledge of the structure and dynamic of interplanetary discontinuities and their injection and acceleration properties. Kinetic simulations are very successful tool for studying the microphysics of collisionless shocks, as well as wave-particle interactions. Processes associated with injection and acceleration of various ion populations such as the solar wind and pickup ions have been investigated in relation to shock parameters and shock topology. The purpose of this talk is to review from the point of view of kinetic simulations aspects of ion reflection, wave-particle interaction, and ion injection and acceleration of shocks in interplanetary space.