Cocoon formation by a mildly relativistic pair jet in unmagnetized collisionless electron-proton plasma

TL;DR

This study uses PIC simulations to reveal how a relativistic electron-positron pair cloud forms a collimated jet in unmagnetized plasma through filamentation instability and magnetic field effects, creating a cocoon structure.

Contribution

It demonstrates a novel mechanism of jet collimation and cocoon formation driven by filamentation instability and magnetic fields in unmagnetized plasma.

Findings

Filamentation instability develops between protons and positrons.

Magnetic fields collimate the positron jet and form a cocoon.

Outer cocoon expands at 0.15c along the jet axis.

Abstract

By modelling the expansion of a cloud of electrons and positrons with the temperature 400 keV that propagates at the mean speed 0.9c ($c:$ speed of light) through an initially unmagnetized electron-proton plasma with a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation, we find a mechanism that collimates the pair cloud into a jet. A filamentation instability develops between the protons at rest and the moving positrons. Its magnetic field collimates the positrons and drives an electrostatic shock into the electron-proton plasma. The magnetic field acts as a discontinuity that separates the protons of the shocked ambient plasma, known as the outer cocoon, from the jet's interior region. The outer cocoon expands at the speed 0.15c along the jet axis and at 0.03c perpendicularly to it. The filamentation instability converts the jet's directed flow energy into magnetic energy in the inner cocoon. The magnetic discontinuity cannot separate the ambient electrons from the jet electrons. Both species rapidly mix and become indistinguishable. The spatial distribution of the positive charge carriers is in agreement with the distributions of the ambient material and the jet material predicted by a hydrodynamic model apart from a dilute positronic outflow that is accelerated by the electromagnetic field at the jet's head.