Recent advancements on particle acceleration at collisionless shocks

Energetic particles represent an important component of the plasma in the heliosphere. Spacecraft observations have detected energetic particles accelerated at impulsive events in the solar corona and at interplanetary shocks. Fluctuations in energetic particle fluxes are related to solar activity and to magnetic turbulence in the interplanetary medium. Thanks to in-situ satellite observations, numerical simulations, and theoretical models, our knowledge on the particle acceleration processes involved has advanced significantly in recent years. Here we review new developments on particle acceleration at collisionless shocks, in particular in relation with the transport properties of supra-thermal particles, as inferred from the analysis of particle fluxes, addressing that anomalous, superdiffusive transport is common in the interplanetary medium. A link between the results obtained from the in-situ diagnostic, used for studying energetic particle transport and acceleration, and remote observations of astrophysical shocks will be discussed.