Structure formation and particle acceleration in collisionless shock waves

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Structure formation and particle acceleration in shock waves propagating obliquely to an external magnetic field have been studied with two-dimensional(two space coordinates and three velocities), relativistic, electromagnetic, particle simulations. It is found that as a result of the nonlinear evolution of instabilities driven by electrons trapped and energized in an oblique shock wave, some electrons can escape from the wave and can be further accelerated to much higher energies. Repeated acceleration of ions and associated instabilities are also investigated. In addition, a theory for the effects of ion composition on nonlinear magnetosonic waves is developed and is confirmed by numerical simulations.