Particle acceleration at shocks: some modern aspects of an old problem

The acceleration of charged particles at astrophysical collisionless shock waves is one of the best studied processes for the energization of particles to ultrarelativistic energies, required by multifrequency observations in a variety of astrophysical situations. In this paper we discuss some work aimed at describing one of the main progresses made in the theory of shock acceleration, namely the introduction of the non-linear backreaction of the accelerated particles onto the shocked fluid. The implications for the investigation of the origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays will be discussed.