Speaker
Description
Relativistic shocks propagating in perfectly conductive plasmas have been extensively studied due to their central role in high energy astrophysical phenomena, with Gamma-Ray Bursts being the most prominent example. In the present work we investigate the mechanism by which a relativistic shock interacts with the propagation medium’s electromagnetic field. We assume the propagation of a shock front with a finite length through a magnetized medium, as well as a finite electrical conductivity for the plasma in the shock front's volume. These assumptions necessitate the inclusion of one more jump condition derived through the covariant Gauss-Ampère Law and introduce a dimensionless parameter dependent on the magnetic diffusivity of the plasma in the shock front, the shock front's length, as well as on the shock's propagation four-velocity. We investigate the effects of this parameter’s value on shock dynamics and discuss possible applications of this work in the study of Gamma-Ray Bursts.
