Fiuza Lab

Research focus

ERC Consolidator Grant · 2021

Extreme Particle Acceleration in Shocks: from the laboratory to astrophysics

Astrophysical shocks are among the most powerful particle accelerators in the Universe. Generated by violent interactions of supersonic, and often relativistic, plasma flows with the ambient medium, shock waves involve a complex and highly nonlinear interplay between the dynamics of flows, magnetic fields, and accelerated particles through mechanisms not yet fully understood. “What is the origin of cosmic rays?”, “What controls particle injection and the acceleration efficiency in collisionless shocks?”, “How is the physics of relativistic shocks modified by electron-positron pair production?”, “Can these mechanisms be studied in the laboratory?” These are long-standing scientific…

From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.