Hybrid Numerical Model of Shock Waves in Collisionless Plasma

We present a 2D hybrid numerical plasma model of generation and structure of collisionless shock waves in plasma and ion acceleration on their front considering physical processes in supernova remnant shock precursor. In modeling a shock wave is generated by sending a supersonic flow against a reflecting wall. The consequent interaction between incoming and reflected plasma flows lead to formation of waves, the structure of which depends on a flow velocity. The hybrid approach reduces the computational expenses relative to a fully kinetic one, and on the other hand, permits to model ions with a greater accuracy than the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) allows. Also, another important advantage of the hybrid approach is the possibility to study the important instabilities on an ion time scale, neglecting the modes associated with electrons. In the current work a new computational scheme where stability condition allows carry out computations on more wide set of computational and physical parameters is presented.