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An injection mechanism for shock waves of arbitrary obliquity
Author(s) -
Rice W. K. M.,
Zank G. P.,
le Roux J. A.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2000gl000128
Subject(s) - physics , particle acceleration , acceleration , shock wave , shock (circulatory) , solar wind , shock waves in astrophysics , heliosphere , particle (ecology) , mechanics , computational physics , charged particle , plasma , ion , astrophysics , classical mechanics , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , medicine , geology , oceanography
Evidence exists suggesting that not only do heliospheric shocks accelerate particles up to energies as high as a few GeV/nuc. but that the source of these energetic particles are pickup ions or low energy particles present in the suprathermal tail of the solar wind distribution. To be diffusively accelerated at a shock wave a particle needs an energy significantly greater than that of the expected source particles, the so‐called “injection problem”. We present here a model of particle acceleration at shocks of arbitrary obliquity that produces particle energies sufficiently high for diffusive shock acceleration to occur.