Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 7: Sonne und Heliosphäre (I)

EP 7.1: Talk

Thursday, March 20, 2014, 18:00–18:15, SPA Kapelle

Simulation of weak collisionless shockfronts in the solar wind — •Patrick Kilian¹, Cedric Schreiner², Andreas Kempf³, Urs Ganse⁴, Felix Spanier⁵, and Jörg Büchner¹ — ¹MPI für Sonnensystemforschung, Göttingen, Deutschland — ²Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg, Deutschland — ³Ruhr-Universtität, Bochum, Deutschland — ⁴University of Helsinki, Finnland — ⁵Northwest University, Potchefstroom, Südafrika

Several type of collisionless shockfronts exist in the solar wind. Those shocks tend to exhibit shock speed not much greater than the critical speed, leading to weak shocks with relatively low Mach numbers. Nevertheless those shocks are the site of particle acceleration yielding particles much more energetic than the typical thermal energies in the solar wind. Kinetic simulation codes offer the opportunity to study the shock front and the acceleration mechanisms in detail. This talk addresses the challenges posed by the low shock speed and techniques necessary to simulate weak, non-relativistic shock fronts with an explicit Particle-in-Cell code.