Rapid Energy Dissipation by Colliding Waves in Strongly Magnetized Plasmas
Abstract
Rapid dissipation of magnetic energy in highly magnetized environments around neutron stars and black holes is a key open question in high-energy astrophysics. We develop a general kinetic picture of counter-propagating wave collisions in magnetized pair plasmas for arbitrary polarizations and find that magnetic energy can be dissipated on the wave-crossing timescale. The two magnetohydrodynamical conditions on the field invariants, I1≡ B2−E2>0 and I2≡ E·B=0, can be spontaneously violated during the collision. Parallel electric fields develop to screen nonzero I2 with little energy loss, consistent with the evolution described by Force-Free Electrodynamics. When magnetic dominance is lost, strong particle energization is triggered, dissipating magnetic energy on the wave-crossing timescale. This dynamical process yields a rapid dissipation channel of magnetic energy and provides a kinetic pathway to high-energy emission.
Related
- Radiative Efficiency Enhancement by Electromagnetic Energy Dissipation in Strongly Magnetized Supercritical Accretion Flows around Kerr Black Holes
- Interaction of Strong X-mode Waves with Magnetized Pair Plasmas
- Evolution of Jeans instability in nonthermal magnetized complex plasmas
- Scalar Dissipation Criticality in Compressible Magnetized Turbulence
- Radiation Magneto-hydrodynamic Simulations of MRI with Zero-Net-Vertical-Flux: Necessity of Resolving the Thermal Scale For Strongly Magnetized Initial Conditions
BibTeX
@misc{wu2026rapid,
title = {{Rapid Energy Dissipation by Colliding Waves in Strongly Magnetized Plasmas}},
author = {Tianshu Wu and Xinyu Li and Yangyang Cai},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.29365},
eprint = {2608.29365},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.29365},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Rapid Energy Dissipation by Colliding Waves in Strongly Magnetized Plasmas
AU - Tianshu Wu
AU - Xinyu Li
AU - Yangyang Cai
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.29365
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.29365
AB - Rapid dissipation of magnetic energy in highly magnetized environments around neutron stars and black holes is a key open question in high-energy astrophysics. We develop a general kinetic picture of counter-propagating wave collisions in magnetized pair plasmas for arbitrary polarizations and find that magnetic energy can be dissipated on the wave-crossing timescale. The two magnetohydrodynamical conditions on the field invariants, I_1≡ B^2−E^2>0 and I_2≡ E·B=0, can be spontaneously violated during the collision. Parallel electric fields develop to screen nonzero I_2 with little energy loss, consistent with the evolution described by Force-Free Electrodynamics. When magnetic dominance is lost, strong particle energization is triggered, dissipating magnetic energy on the wave-crossing timescale. This dynamical process yields a rapid dissipation channel of magnetic energy and provides a kinetic pathway to high-energy emission.
ER -