1. A Coherent, Nonlinear TEM Wave at a Pulsar Wind Termination Shock.
- Author
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Skjæraasen, Olaf, Melatos, Andrew, and Spitkovsky, Anatoly
- Subjects
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SUPERLUMINAL radio sources (Astronomy) , *ELECTROMAGNETISM , *DISPERSION (Chemistry) , *PARTICLE size determination , *ANISOTROPY , *NUCLEAR physics , *DISPERSION relations , *FLUCTUATIONS (Physics) - Abstract
We study the coupling between a relavistic pair plasma and a nonlinear, superluminal, transverse electromagnetic (TEM) wave, both in the free-streaming case and in the case where the plasma encounters a shock produced by a confining medium. For the free-streaming case, we verify an analytically derived dispersion relation. In the shocked case, we observe that the wave induces coherent oscillations of the plasma internally in the shock and modifies the shock structure, until it decays after some 102 – 103 skin depths, causing anisotropic heating of the plasma. The prime application of our work is the termination shock of a pulsar wind. © 2005 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
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