Berlin 2014 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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SYPA: Symposium Plasma-Astrophysik

SYPA 1: Plasma Astrophysics

SYPA 1.2: Hauptvortrag

Donnerstag, 20. März 2014, 14:30–15:00, SPA Kapelle

Simulation of shock waves — •Felix Spanier — North-West University, Potchefstroom, Südafrika

Shock waves are a very common phenomenon in astrophysics. Almost every astrophysical source shows supersonic flows and clear shock fronts from the Sun, bow shocks on planets up to the scale of gamma-ray bursts and Active Galactic Nuclei.

The study of shock waves is not only by itself interesting, but also the importance of shocks for the acceleration of particles to nonthermal energies. The simulation of shock waves is strongly complicated by this matter: The already very sophisticated fluid simulations of shocks are no longer sufficient to understand the nonthermal interaction in the shocks.

I will review the importance of a kinetic description of shocks and present results from particle-in-cell simulations performed to understand the formation and properties of shock waves.