Spectrum of epithermal electrons accelerated by a collisionless shock wave
Bykov A. M. , Uvarov Yu. A.
A model is proposed for the energy spectrum of epithermal electrons near the front of a strong, quasilongitudinal, supercritical, collisionless shock wave. The spectrum is calculated. The relative number of electrons injected from the thermal background into the nonthermal distribution depends exponentially on the Mach number of the shock wave.