Particle energization in solenoidal and compressive relativistic plasma turbulence

Turbulence may be driven in high-energy astrophysical plasmas through a broad variety of mechanisms, which are generally classified by their degree of compressibility. The influence of the large-scale driving mechanism on kinetic turbulence and the associated energy dissipation has not yet been established for the relativistic collisionless plasma regime relevant to these systems. To address this, I will describe recent results from particle-in-cell simulations of turbulence with solenoidal and compressive driving. These simulations cover the relativistic regime (where electrons and ions are both relativistically hot) and the semi-relativistic regime (where electron temperature is relativistic but ion temperature is sub-relativistic). I will summarize the properties of turbulent fluctuations, the electron-ion energy partition, and nonthermal particle acceleration for both types of driving. These results have implications for modeling emission and cosmic ray acceleration in high-energy astrophysical systems such as hot accretion flows onto black holes.