Description
Collisionless shocks are ubiquitous in the Universe, playing a central role in plasma
heating, magnetic field amplification and nonthermal particle acceleration, in both
space and astrophysical plasmas. Yet our understanding of how the ambient plasma
conditions impact the dominant shock processes is still not fully understood.
In this work, we present the results of fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations aimed at
systematically studying how the shock Mach Number, ambient magnetic field
orientation and ion-to-electron mass ratio impact the energy partition and nonthermal
particle acceleration mechanisms at the shock. In particular, we discuss the dominant
magnetic field amplification processes and how these impact the efficiency of particle
injection into the nonthermal tail.