Particle Acceleration in Cosmic Plasmas

The review articles collected in this volume present a critical assessment of particle acceleration mechanisms and observations from suprathermal particles in the magnetosphere and heliosphere to high-energy cosmic rays, thus covering a range of energies over seventeen orders of magnitude, from 10³ eV to 10²⁰ eV. The main themes are observations of accelerated populations from the magnetosphere to extragalactic scales and assessments of the physical processes underlying particle acceleration in different environments (magnetospheres, the solar atmosphere, the heliosphere, supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae and relativistic outflows). Several contributions review the status of shock acceleration in different environments and also the role of turbulence in particle acceleration. Observational results are compared with modelling in different parameter regimes. The book concludes with contributions on the status of particle acceleration research and its future perspectives.

This volume is aimed at graduate students and researchers active in astrophysics and space science.

Previously published in Space Science Reviews journal, Vol. 173 Nos. 1-4, 2012.

Introduction.- Ion Acceleration at the Earth’s Bow Shock.- Particle Acceleration in the Magnetotail andAurora.- Acceleration of Particles to High Energies in Earth’s Radiation Belts.- High-energy Atmospheric Physics: Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes and Related Phenomena.- Particle Acceleration at the Sun, Current Fragmentation and Particle Acceleration in Solar Flares.- Heliospheric Particle Acceleration.- The Acceleration Mechanism of Anomalous Cosmic Rays.- Particle Acceleration in Relativistic Outflows.- Pulsar Wind Nebulae as Cosmic Pevatrons: A Current Sheet’s Tale.- Observational Signatures of Particle Acceleration in Supernova Remnants.- Particle Acceleration Processes in the Heliosphere: Implications for Astrophysics.- Langmuir Turbulence and Suprathermal Electron Acceleration.- Diffusive Shock Acceleration and Magnetic Field Amplification.- Kinetic Simulations of Collisionless Shocks.- Relativistic Reconnection and Particle Acceleration.- Stochastic Acceleration by Turbulence.- Turbulence, Magnetic Reconnection in Turbulent Fluids and Energetic Particle Acceleration.- Cyclotron Resonant Interactions in Cosmic Particle Accelerators.