Project Description
AGN jets are extremely energetic astrophysical objects where a number of interconnected processes, including magnetic reconnection, turbulence, and instabilities cooperate in accelerating particles to extreme energies. Numerical simulations offer the unique opportunity of testing different acceleration scenarios which may be conducive to particle acceleration to the expected energies.During Phase 1 we investigated particle acceleration in relativistic and non-relativistic magnetic reconnection and explored several numerical models aimed at reducing the computational cost of large-scale simulations while retaining relevant kinetic-scale particle acceleration mechanisms.
Our objectives for Phase 2 are to obtain particle spectra for charged particles from realistic simulations of AGN jets and understand which processes are mainly responsible for particle acceleration in realistic field configurations. To do so, advanced simulation frameworks will be developed, building on our model development activities from Phase 1, to address the questions:
- What is the minimal description needed to capture relevant heating and acceleration processes in AGN jets?
- What accelerates particles in our different scenarios of interest? Up to which energy, and with which spectral slope?
- What is the role of large-scale driving in particle heating and acceleration in AGN jets?
