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By means of a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation, we study the interactionbetween a uniform magnetized ambient electron-proton plasma at rest and anunmagnetized pair plasma, which we inject at one simulation boundary with amildly relativistic mean speed and temperature. The magnetic field points outof the simulation plane. The injected pair plasma expels the magnetic field andpiles it up at its front. It traps ambient electrons and drags them across theprotons. An electric field grows, which accelerates protons into the paircloud's expansion direction. This electromagnetic pulse separates the paircloud from the ambient plasma. Electrons and positrons, which drift in thepulse's nonuniform field, trigger an instability that disrupts the currentsheet ahead of the pulse. The wave vector of the growing perturbation isorthogonal to the magnetic field direction and magnetic tension cannotstabilize it. The electromagnetic pulse becomes permeable for pair plasma,which forms new electromagnetic pulses ahead of the initial one. A transitionlayer develops with a thickness of a few proton skin depths, in which protonsand positrons are accelerated by strong electromagnetic fields. Protons formdense clumps surrounded by a strong magnetic field. The thickness of thetransition layer grows less rapidly than we would expect from the typicalspeeds of the pair plasma particles and the latter transfer momentum toprotons; hence, the transition layer acts as a discontinuity, separating thepair plasma from the ambient plasma. Such a discontinuity is an importantbuilding block for astrophysical pair plasma jets.

Two-dimensional particle simulation of the boundary between a hot pair plasma and magnetized electrons and protons: out-of-plane magnetic field