Studying the mirror acceleration via kinetic simulations of relativistic plasma turbulence

[2506.04212] Studying the mirror acceleration via kinetic simulations of relativistic plasma turbulence Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Astrophysics > High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena arXiv:2506.04212 (astro-ph) [Submitted on 4 Jun 2025 ( v1 ), last revised 24 Aug 2026 (this version, v3)] Title: Studying the mirror acceleration via kinetic simulations of relativistic plasma turbulence Authors: Saikat Das , Siyao Xu , Joonas Nättilä View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: Efficient relativistic turbulent acceleration of particles is indicated by recent astrophysical observations. The acceleration mechanism due to temporal variations of magnetic field strengths (``Type II mechanism") remains underexplored. The mirror acceleration has recently been proposed as an efficient Type II mechanism for particle energization in turbulence-compressed magnetic fields. We perform a 3D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation of pair plasma to extend its study to relativistic turbulence. By tracking individual particles, we see that the particles interacting with transverse magnetic mirrors can have a significant energy gain during one mirror interaction and within one gyro-orbit. As expected for the mirror acceleration, we statistically find that the momentum gain is preferentially in the direction perpendicular to the local magnetic field and positively correlated with the local magnetic field strengthening. As a result, the particle pitch angle distribution becomes increasingly anisotropic toward higher energies, with a concentration at large pitch angles. The mirror acceleration facilitates a spatial confinement of particles by stochastically increasing their pitch angles, which further enhances the mirror acceleration. Comments: 15 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) ; Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2506.04212 [astro-ph.HE] (or arXiv:2506.04212v3 [astro-ph.HE] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2506.04212 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Journal reference: Astrophys. J. 1009 (2026) 140 Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae9d7b Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: Saikat Das [ view email ] [v1] Wed, 4 Jun 2025 17:56:48 UTC (3,868 KB) [v2] Wed, 6 May 2026 18:45:15 UTC (2,617 KB) [v3] Mon, 24 Aug 2026 18:20:17 UTC (2,655 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Additional Features Audio Summary Current browse context: astro-ph.HE < prev | next > new | recent | 2025-06 Change to browse by: astro-ph physics physics.plasm-ph References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab) Major funding support from

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