title: Asymptotic separation in multispecies collisional plasma shocks.
abstract: When a piston drives a shock in a multicomponent plasma, residual separation of the ion species persists close to the piston-plasma boundary, long after the shock has propagated away from the boundary and has reached a (nearly) steady-state solution. This effect is observed in hybrid particle-in-cell simulations with two kinetic ion species and fluid electrons. It is a consequence of the different dynamics experienced by ions of different mass and charge-to-mass ratio and must be taken into account to properly model the physics of species separation in collisional plasma shocks.
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bellei
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Amendt
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D004583:Electrons; D007700:Kinetics; D055585:Physical Phenomena; D058626:Plasma Gases
chemical_list: D058626:Plasma Gases