Princeton University Thunch Talk

Turbulence is believed to play an important role in high-energy astrophysical systems such as black-hole accretion flows and their jets. These systems contain plasmas that are collisionless, relativistic, and radiative; the properties of turbulence and the associated particle energization are largely unexplored in this physical regime. Understanding the interaction between turbulent fluctuations and relativistic particles is essential for interpreting observations (including the luminosity, spectra, and variability of systems). I will describe recent and ongoing work on studying relativistic plasma turbulence with kinetic particle-in-cell simulations. In particular, I will describe what we have learned about electron and ion heating, thermal coupling mechanisms, nonthermal particle acceleration, the effect of radiative cooling, and radiative signatures from driven turbulence simulations with varying setups.