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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
We discuss the fundamental ideas of particle acceleration in plasma shocks with emphasis on those features that are required to produce the “universal” power-law spectrum. We compare shock acceleration with the more familiar second-order or stochastic acceleration and see that they are not too different in many respects. We discuss the features of shock acceleration that make it appealing and some of its problems as well.
Subject headings: acceleration of particles — MHD — plasmas — shock waves
Invited talk presented at the IAU Colloquium No. 142, “Particle Acceleration Phenomena in Astrophysical Plasmas.”