The Interaction of Current Sheets with a Shock Wave and Particle Acceleration

Abstract

Abstract We investigate the interaction of a shock wave with multiple current sheets using a 2D hybrid simulation. We set the separation between current sheets at 25c/Wi and the thickness longer than the ion inertial length. While the current sheets are stable upstream, they become unstable to the tearing instability since the thickness becomes shorter than the ion inertial length after they interact with the shock wave. Magnetic islands produced by the instability evolve into larger islands through coalescence and the electromagnetic fields become turbulent far downstream. We also observe that the number of energetic particles increases with distance away from the shock wave and that the increase corresponds to the evolution of the current sheets.