Dissipation and particle acceleration in astrophysical jets with velocity and magnetic shear: Interaction of Kelvin-Helmholtz and Drift-Kink Instabilities

Abstract

We present 2D particle-in-cell simulations of a magnetized, collisionless, relativistic pair plasma subjected to combined velocity and magnetic-field shear, a scenario typical for astrophysical black-hole jet-wind boundaries. We create conditions where only the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) and Drift-Kink (DK) instabilities can develop, while tearing modes are forbidden. We find that DKI can effectively disrupt the cats-eye vortices generated by KHI, creating a turbulent shear layer on the DK timescale. This interplay leads to a significant enhancement of dissipation over cases with only velocity shear or only magnetic shear. Moreover, we observe efficient nonthermal particle acceleration caused by the alignment of the instability-driven electric fields with Speiser-like motion of particles close to the shear interface. This study highlights the sensitivity of dissipation to multiple simultaneous instabilities, thus providing a strong motivation for further studies of their nonlinear interaction at the kinetic level.