Collisionless shock as a self-organized system

A collisionless shock is a self-organized system, the main task of which is fast and stable transfer of the conserved quantities, that is, mass, momentum, and energy, from one side, upstream, to the other side, downstream, while adding entropy. ”Fast” means that the transfer occurs at the scales
much smaller than the MHD scales. ”Stable” means that there are not disruptions of substantial changes on average, except those which are caused
by variations of ambient conditions. In this approach the developing shock structure is the one which ensures this transfer. This means, that if the
transfer stability is not possible without an overshoot, an overshoot has to be formed. If it is not possible without rippling, rippling will develop. Since
ions are the main carriers of these conserved quantities, it is ions which are responsible for developing the structure and it is ions which have to
most strongly affected by it. In particular, we show that overshoot plays an important role regulating ion reflection so that the shock becomes stable.