Published January 1997 | Version v1
Journal article

The shear Alfvacute en wave in a resistive plasma with a shearless magnetic field

  • 1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)
  • 2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801 (United States)

Description

In this Brief Communication, the time development of the shear Alfvacute en wave in a resistive magnetohydrodynamic plasma is treated. The analysis is restricted to a pressureless plasma confined in a planar sheet pinch with a constant equilibrium magnetic field directed parallel to the magnetic surface wave vector. The equilibrium mass density depends on the spatial coordinate orthogonal to the planar magnetic surfaces. Under these conditions, the shear Alfvacute en mode decouples from the compressional Alfvacute en mode. The time behavior of the wave fields is governed by a second-order scalar partial differential equation. Laplace transform techniques are used to solve the equation, and to explore the limiting form of the solution as resistivity passes to zero. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physics of Plasmas
Journal Volume
4
Journal Issue
1
Journal Page Range
p. 245-247.
ISSN
1070-664X
CODEN
PHPAEN