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Evolution of magnetic field in a weakly relativistic counterstreaming inhomogeneous e−/e+ plasmas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2020

Sandeep Kumar Open the ORCID record for Sandeep Kumar [Opens in a new window] ,
Y. K. Kim ,
T. Kang ,
Min Sup Hur  and
Moses Chung
Sandeep Kumar
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Manav Rachna University (MRU), Faridabad, Haryana, India
Y. K. Kim
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, South Korea
T. Kang
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, South Korea
Min Sup Hur*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, South Korea
Moses Chung*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, South Korea
*
Author for correspondence: M. Chung and M. S. Hur, Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science Technology, Ulsan, South Korea. E-mail: mchung@unist.ac.kr; mshur@unist.ac.kr
Author for correspondence: M. Chung and M. S. Hur, Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science Technology, Ulsan, South Korea. E-mail: mchung@unist.ac.kr; mshur@unist.ac.kr
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Abstract

The nonlinear evolution of electron Weibel instability in a symmetric, counterstream, unmagnetized electron–positron e−/e+ plasmas is studied by a 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) method. The magnetic field is produced and amplified by the Weibel instability, which extracts energy from the plasma anisotropy. A weakly relativistic drift velocity of 0.5c is considered for two counterstreaming e−/e+ plasma flows. Simulations show that in a homogeneous e−/e+ plasma distribution, the magnetic field amplifies exponentially in the linear regime and rapidly decays after saturation. However, in the case of inhomogeneous e−/e+ plasma distribution, the magnetic field re-amplifies at post-saturation. We also find that the amount of magnetic field amplification at post-saturation depends on the strength of the density inhomogeneity of the upstream plasma distribution. The temperature calculation shows that the finite thermal anisotropy exists in the case of an inhomogeneous plasma distribution which leads to the second-stage magnetic field amplification after the first saturation. Such density inhomogeneities are present in a variety of astrophysical sources: for example, in supernova remnants and gamma-ray bursts. Therefore, the present analysis is very useful in understanding these astrophysical sources, where anisotropic density fluctuations are very common in the downstream region of the relativistic shocks and the widely distributed magnetic field.

Keywords

Gamma-ray burstmagnetic fieldplasma instabilitiestemperature anisotropy
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , September 2020 , pp. 181 - 187
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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