TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-organization of collisionless shocks
T2 - a 'phase transition' from a planar stationary profile to a rippled structure
AU - Gedalin, Michael
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2025/1/3
Y1 - 2025/1/3
N2 - It is common wisdom that collisionless shocks become non-planar and non-stationary at sufficiently high Mach numbers. Whatever the shock structure, the upstream and downstream fluxes of the mass, momentum and energy should be equal. At low Mach numbers, these conservation laws are satisfied when the shock front is planar and stationary. When this becomes impossible, inhomogeneity and time dependence, presumably in the form of rippling, develop. In this study, we show that the shock structure changes as a kind of 'phase transition' when the Mach number is increased while other shock parameters are kept constant.
AB - It is common wisdom that collisionless shocks become non-planar and non-stationary at sufficiently high Mach numbers. Whatever the shock structure, the upstream and downstream fluxes of the mass, momentum and energy should be equal. At low Mach numbers, these conservation laws are satisfied when the shock front is planar and stationary. When this becomes impossible, inhomogeneity and time dependence, presumably in the form of rippling, develop. In this study, we show that the shock structure changes as a kind of 'phase transition' when the Mach number is increased while other shock parameters are kept constant.
KW - shock waves - acceleration of particles
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85216301865&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0022377824001545
DO - 10.1017/S0022377824001545
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85216301865
SN - 0022-3778
VL - 91
JO - Journal of Plasma Physics
JF - Journal of Plasma Physics
IS - 1
M1 - E6
ER -