Authors: Keyan Gootkin (University of Hawaii), Colby Haggerty (University of Hawaii)

We present a series of 2.5D hybrid-kinetic simulations of collisionless plasma turbulence performed using dHybridR—a hybrid-kinetic, particle-in-cell, Vlasov-Maxwell code. In these simulations we induce decaying turbulence of various Mach numbers by adding large spatial fluctuations to the initial bulk-flows and magnetic fields. Turbulence develops rapidly, relaxing to a spectrum described by a power-law with slopes between 4/3 and 5/3 by the time that Jz reaches its maximum variance. In high Mach simulations a significant high energy population of non-thermal particles form. As much as 10% of the total energy in the simulation goes into accelerating these energetic particles, whose energetic spectrum is described by a power-law. This demonstrates that supersonic turbulence, a state which is predicted to be common in astrophysical plasmas, produces significant non-thermal particles which will influence the evolution of astrophysical systems from the near-Earth environment to the early universe.