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Abstract

The dynamical reaction of the particles accelerated at a shock front by the first-order Fermi process can be determined within kinetic models that account for both the hydrodynamics of the shocked fluid and the transport of the accelerated particles. These models predict the appearance of multiple solutions, all physically allowed. We discuss here the role of injection in selecting the real solution, in the framework of a simple phenomenological recipe, which is a variation of what is sometimes referred to as thermal leakage. In this context we show that multiple solutions basically disappear and when they are present they are limited to rather peculiar values of the parameters. We also provide a quantitative calculation of the efficiency of particle acceleration at cosmic ray modified shocks and we identify the fraction of energy which is advected downstream and that of particles escaping the system from upstream infinity at the maximum momentum. The consequences of efficient particle acceleration for shock heating are also discussed.