Particle acceleration, magnetic field generation, and emission in relativistic shocks

Shock acceleration is a ubiquitous phenomenon in astrophysical plasmas. Plasma waves and their associated instabilities (e.g., Buneman, Weibel and other two-stream instabilities) created in collisionless shocks are responsible for particle (electron, positron, and ion) acceleration. Using a 3D relativistic electromagnetic particle code, we have investigated particle acceleration associated with a relativistic jet front propagating into an ambient plasma. We find small differences in the results for no ambient and modest ambient magnetic fields. Simulations show that the Weibel instability created in the collisionless shock front accelerates jet and ambient particles both perpendicular and parallel to the jet propagation direction. The small scale magnetic field structure generated by the Weibel instability is appropriate to the generation of “jitter” radiation from defected electrons (positrons) as opposed to synchrotron radiation. The jitter radiation resulting from small scale magnetic field structures may be important for understanding the complex time structure and spectral evolution observed in γ-ray bursts or other astrophysical sources containing relativistic jets and relativistic collisionless shocks.