Simulations of Collisionless Perpendicular Shocks in Partially Ionized Plasmas

Perpendicular collisionless shocks propagating into partially ionized plasmas are investigated by two-dimensional hybrid particle simulations. It is shown that some neutral particles leak into the upstream region from the downstream region, the leaking neutral particles become pickup ions in the upstream region and modify the shock structure, the pickup ions are preferentially accelerated, and plasma instabilities are excited by the pickup ions in the upstream and downstream regions.